Curiosity
by ACtravels
Summary: It was probably my curiosity which would be the ruin of me. It was my curiosity which led to me falling into the Potter's back yard. My curiosity that led me to experiment with my 'ability' and it was curiosity that led me to ignore the one piece of advice my mother ever gave me - never look into your future. James II/OC
1. Chapter 1

The house was new. It had probably only been built a few months ago, if that. The walls were all painted in 'neutral' which meant they were a bland off white which was clearly meant to make the room feel warm and spacious. They didn't. When teamed with the modern wooden floors it just made the room seem even emptier than. Why are empty houses supposed to be more appealing? To me it just made it feel like any second the walls were going to close in on themselves. Suffocating.

It was so new and horrible. It was muggle too. I could sense the lack of magic so clearly that it made me feel fidgety and uncomfortable. There was no soul or feeling in the brickwork. No magic. No secrets. Nothing but bricks and mortar.

"So, what do you think Cas?" Dad asked as he led me through the empty white corridors and showed me room after room. It was bigger than the last house, admittedly, but I couldn't help miss the grey stone of our Scottish home surrounded in magic and holding deep secrets. That house had been built by magic, I was certain of it, and I'd forgotten what it felt like to be in a soulless house.

"It's big." I answered truthfully as he pulled me into another reception room which was painted in exactly the same way as all the others. It _was_big and I could see the eventual potential of the house but it was going to take awhile to get it to feel as homey as the last house. If we were going to move again next year then it was hardly worth the effort.

"I think we'll be safe here." Dad remarked and I couldn't help but recall his words being the same about the last place and the place before. "They've got brilliant security already and if we can just add our own..." He said and I nodded. I didn't feel very magically secure. In fact it felt as though magic had never even touched the area.

"We're going to need more furniture to fill it." I pointed out and Dad nodded. I hated the big houses that dwarfed the pairs of us: the bigger the house, the more it seemed to emasculate our relationship somehow, as if to serve as a reminder of how small we were. But Dad was rich and he had to spend his money somehow.

"Well that's all right. The new line's coming out so the bank account should be filling up." I didn't point out that the bank account was always full up and we could hardly spend it all between the two of us. "You can buy me lots of new furniture." He suggested, knowing full well that I was going to do what I always did – buy as much antique furniture as I could to fill up the empty spaces of the house until it was so full of magic and character that I could feel almost as comfortable as I did at Hogwarts.

"Of course." I said, laughing slightly. I looked around at the room we'd stopped in, the last and the biggest by far. It was far too big for two of us. "It is very big." I said again and Dad nodded. I wondered if he was also thinking how nice it would be to have more than just us two in such a big house.

"We'll be safe here." Dad repeated again, ruffling up my hair.

All the furniture we'd brought over the past ten or so years barely filled the rooms. Just as I'd suspected, this gigantic house seemed to consume us slightly. Instead of filling the rooms up, I'd placed the pieces with the strongest magical aura in rooms on their own just so the rooms didn't feel so empty. We had four functional rooms which actually had enough furniture – a kitchen/dining room, a sitting room and a bedroom a piece. There were five bathrooms that already came fully furnished and I'd stuck a magic trinket box in one of them so I could use it without feeling uncomfortable.

It was weird, I knew it was weird, but I just found it so hard to exist in a place without traces of magic. It was like trying to talk to a person who'd just been kissed by a dementor. It was just the way I was.

My Dad had never quite understood my issues and he'd probably thought that they'd faded when we moved into the Scottish house last summer given that there had been so much magic in that building that I'd been able to relax almost immediately. Now they were even worse than before because this house was so new and empty: so vast and waiting for something to fill it up.

I had a strong suspicion that he'd been very worried about my habits when I was little and had consulted a child psychiatrist about my problem. I had found the letter of response which put it down to me having 'attachment issues to buildings and places' after what had happened with my mother. My need for old items was down too 'the desire to cling on to her mother' by keeping the decorations the same way they'd been when my mother lived with us.

I couldn't even remember my mother so I doubted any of that was true.

I just had a gift for sensing things and I hated being anywhere when there was nothing to sense. It felt like someone had stripped away a layer of my sight so I could only see in black and white. The lack of depth made me feel uncomfortable. The fake, the superficial and the soulless. I hated it.

Magic was the easiest thing to sense. Reading people's emotions was pretty similar but the harder thing was feeling the memory of the place. Buildings hold echoes of the things that have happened there; they absorb the emotions, the memories, the magic. Except this house is new and there is nothing to sense.

There was this one house we moved to, before Hogwarts, when I could feel this wave of anger and pain screaming out from the walls. Something so bad had happened in there. I couldn't go in – my legs seized up and much to my father's annoyance we had to sell the house again and buy another elsewhere. After researching into the house I found that it had been cheep because a girl had been murdered there a few years back by her own father.

Now I'd give anything to have a house with that sort of history, just because it was better than a house that had no history whatsoever. A little depth. A little mystery. Anything, really.

"Dad?" I asked putting down my book and watching him as he typed coding into the laptop. He was one of the only Wizards I knew who could type faster than a muggle in the muggle way, although I suppose it was a given when it came to his job. He looked up, startled and glanced at me questioningly. "Can I go for a walk around the neighbourhood?" I asked and he nodded slowly.

Although he didn't quite understand my sensing thing (the guy has no imagination what so ever. He called his company Wizarding Communication Technology for Pete's sake), he knew that I could stay out of trouble quite easily. Plus he usually worked in the reverse to what seemed sensible; for the first couple of weeks we lived somewhere he'd be fine with letting me go anywhere I liked. The restrictions were added at the end of the summer when he believed that his Business rivals would have found out where he lived and were likely to send someone to do me in or kidnap or something equally ridiculous. All I knew was that by the beginning of the next summer we were on the move again: uprooting, redecorating, upsizing.

I tended not to bother thinking about it and instead passed off the constant moving as him getting bored. It must be boring living on your own and forcing myself to think about it too much made my head hurt. Anyway, there weren't any answered within my grasp, so searching for them would be pointless. He wasn't going to tell me.

"Be back for dinner. Take your mobile, and your wand." Dad added as I walked towards the door. Then he went back to coding something or other on his laptop. I smiled and dashed up to my room (trying to avoid looking in all the empty rooms) and grabbed my phone off the bed. My wand had already been in my pocket – I was hardly going to go out without it. My room was glowing with magic and memories and I lingered there for a few seconds feeling safe. I checked my reflection in the old cracked mirror which croaked 'put some sensible shoes on' which I ignored. It was only around four and it was pretty sunny for England. I suppose we were much further south than we had been in Scotland. I'd doubted a few miles could make a difference to the weather, but it wasn't raining for once so maybe it could.

I smiled, reassuring myself that the uncomfortable feeling the house was giving me would fade soon enough. Then I skipped down the stairs two at a time, yelled goodbye to my father and walked out the front door.

The houses around here were all built in the past couple of years but nothing quite as new as my house, and nothing quite as big. There were quite a few people outside as the sun was shining. A few of them held my gaze for a few seconds, but none of them seemed particularly interested in me as was to be expected. Perhaps, if they knew where I now lived things would be different – such overt declarations of wealth tended to draw attention.

I walked along the pavement tracing the wall with my finger tips as I tried to find something that had traces of magic. If Dad had thought there was adequate protection in this place, it probably didn't mean a good muggle police force. Dad was paranoid – immensely so – and for this village to meet his standards then there would be some traces of magic somewhere.

I sighed as I glanced at my phone and saw that it was half five already. With a half hour walk back up to the house, it was time to return to the soulless, empty place that I was now supposed to call home. I turned backwards, walking slightly quicker than I had done previously.

Then I stopped. Magic. A pull towards a side road. So well hidden, or just minute, that I hadn't noticed it the first time. I glanced at my phone for a few seconds. It could take a long time to trace the exact pull again. It could take at least a week. And... it was so inviting.

Curiosity got the better of me and I found myself disappearing down the pathway and following the strong pull of the magic. It definitely wasn't dark magic. I was safe. I'd only be a few minutes late back home.

I followed it up a hill to a place that I wouldn't have really noticed if I wasn't so fixed on following the direction it was in. This was the place. I could feel it. It was so full of magic that it was impossible to ignore – flooding through me and filling me up again. It was a house, no doubt. A magical dwelling, a family and it had been for quite some time. Magic made me stronger and more liable to do stupid things, but I felt more solid too.

Magic was the reason I was currently lifting one arm and reaching out, forwards, until I could feel the edge of the magic. Something almost solid. Impenetrable. There was a great wall surrounding the house; protection. This was, undoubtedly, what my Dad had been referring to earlier. This was the house with the tight security that soothed his incomprehensible paranoia. If I closed my eyes, I could almost see the magical wall – like an extra layer of sight that I could never shut off.

I pressed my palm against the invisible surface of the magical wall, my head racing through the possibilities.

There must be a way in.

I marked where I started in the soil with my toe of my sandals and began following the wall around looking for any kind of hole or gap in the wall... There_must_ be a way in. Magic was never quite what it seemed and it seemed improbable that this could really be such an unbreakable defence.

My legs caught on the thick weeds around the edge of the wall (magical houses always seemed to be surrounded by clumps of weeds and utterly wild flowers) and I wished I'd heeded the mirrors advice and donned something more sensible than sandals. I'd no doubt come out of this adventure with my legs covered in cuts and bruises. Frowning, I shifted closer to the wall so I wouldn't notice if there was a gap

Dad wouldn't be worried yet and I could text him in a minute. It wasn't exactly an option at current, because how could I explain trying to break into a magical residence with lots of protection just to see if I could?

Why was I doing this?

I took a step backwards knowing that in reality I should turn around and head back home. But, the fact remained that I didn't much want to spend the whole evening there. This felt like a much better option, even if it was crazy and stupid and entirely not a logical decision. If a family bothered having this much protection (it was a lot better than some I'd seen) then they probably didn't want people bursting through their defences and turning up at their door unexpectedly.

Having a magical wall of protection around your house usually isn't an invitation for visitors.

The decision to quench the burning sense of curiosity was almost slightly painful, but I took a step backwards anyway. My foot caught on a low branch and stumbling forwards to prevent ending up sitting in a patch of thistles, as would be my like, I ended up hurtling towards the magic wall. I braced myself for some sort of solid impact, for the spell to hit, but instead I just fell straight through.

The spell just passed straight over me. The protection my Dad had been so adamant would keep us safe from some apparent external force that I was completely ignorant of had just been broken by a sixteen year old girl. And I hadn't used a wand. And I hadn't really meant to.

Then I realised I was currently lying face down on someone's lawn. And that I'd just broken into their house.

Oops.

* * *

_This is a story I started quite some time ago and is up with plenty more chapters on HPFF. I'm revising so, as per my new habit, am uploading onto here as I go back over and edit it. So, anyways, longer version is available over there if anyone's interested, or you could just wait for me to get round to editing. Or you could just not care, ahha. Thanks for reading!_


	2. Chapter 2

"Hello." A voice said and I pulled myself up quickly. The voice didn't sound particularly murderous but you could never be too sure... I stood up and, to my great surprise; I found myself standing in the Potters garden and looking on at Potter/Weasley family barbeque.

I took a tentative step forward and saw that the three most famous people in the world (Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Weasley) were all stood up and looking at me in surprise. They all had their hands in their pockets and looked as if they were ready to draw their wands.

Oh dear.

"Erm... Hi." I was beginning to get, understandably, nervous as they stood glaring at me as if any second an explanation to my appearance was about to present itself. I wondered if I should try to explain, it didn't really make much sense but... I opened my mouth and stuttered out something incoherent which even I didn't understand.

I think I had the right to feel anxious. In front of me were the three people responsible for the killing of Voldemort. I hadn't even started NEWT's yet.

"Oh chillax dad," James Potter, a Gryffindor in my year, said rolling his eyes. "I hardly think she's a risk to our personal security." The disdainful way he said 'she' made feel even more uncomfortable and I wondered if they would hex me if I turned and ran.

"If she was a death eater she wouldn't wear a sign."

"Yeah, constant vigilance." James snorted as if it was some kind of ongoing joke. The adults all exchanged a look and there was something mournful in that look which made me want to blurt out 'I'm sorry for your loss' but that would be hard to explain and stupid.

"This isn't funny James."

"I think it's hilarious. That's Cassie you're about to hex." He added lazily.

"Hey Cassie!" Rose said coming out of the hall carrying a tray of drinks.

"You know her?"

"Sure, Cassie Jones." Rose said smiling at me kindly. "She's a Hufflepuff in James's year."

"Sorry, I've just moved in down the road." I began tentatively.

"In the big house?" Lily Potter asked excitedly. The others all looked glanced at each other before looking back at me. Probably thinking how it was unlikely that I (Crazy-Cassie as I'm known to the delightful students of Hogwarts) would be the one to move into such a humungous house. I didn't look rich.

There was no doubt in my mind that I had moved into the infamous 'big house' as that had been the one thing that had stuck me about it – it was so big.

I nodded awkwardly.

"Never knew you were loaded." James commented eyeing me with much more interest than he had ever done before. It felt strange that a family of strangers now knew I was rich when really only a couple of close friends knew about it.

"James!" The third woman, who I recognised as Ginny Potter, reprimanded him.

"What?" James asked. "She must be loaded. That place is a _freaking_ mansion."

"I don't like it much. It's too new..." I said hoping in some way to redeem myself for being 'loaded' and just carry on being 'Crazy-Cassie' again.

"Always knew you were crazy, but I didn't know you were a snob too." James commented. I wanted to backtrack and explain that it wasn't what I'd meant at all but it was too complicated. Ginny looked scandalised at James's rudeness and gave him a dark look which he rolled his eyes at.

"Ignore him Cassie dear. He's trying to act cool. He hasn't quite got the hang of flirting yet." She said smiling. I liked her method of punishment – embarrassment. James rolled his eyes again but flushed slightly in his seat.

"Jones?" Harry asked and I nodded (it felt weird thinking of him as 'Harry' in my head given that he was the saviour of the wizarding race...) "You're not related to Hestia Jones by any chance are you?"

"I could be, I'm not really in contact with my mum's side of the family."

Harry glanced at Hermione for a second and I could tell that they were wondering the same thing – why I had kept my mother's name. They were hardly going to ask though. Hermione then glanced at Ron who appeared to be completely unaware of this questioning and was instead turning over the meat in the barbeque (which looks sufficiently burnt).

"Oh how rude, we haven't even offered you any food. Do help yourself." Ginny said, before glancing at the barbeque and scrunching up her nose. "Or maybe it's better if you don't."

"What's Cassie short for? Or it just Cassie?" Hermione asked me.

"Cassandra." I told her feeling a little like I was being interviewed. I still hardly felt exactly comfortable amongst them.

"None of this explains how she got here." Ron pointed out and they all looked at me again. Now the interest of the whole barbeque was focused on me. I could see that at least the whole extended Weasley family wasn't here, just the Potter's, Hugo and Rose. It still made me feel pretty nervous.

"Sorry." I said again, wondering how I was supposed to explain that I'd just felt like breaking through their protection for fun. "I... I can erm... sense magic and I could feel it back in the village so I just... followed the source." I took a breath and decided that as they hadn't killed me yet I could probably risk carrying on with my story. "Then I found the wall of your protection and I just thought that there might be a gap so I was trying to find it and..."

"Why were you trying to find it?" Ginny asked whilst the other three exchanged meaningful glances. I wondered if the others got annoyed at the constant waves of understanding and memories that were constantly being exchanged between the three of them.

"I was just... curious." I answered hopelessly.

"There's a hole?" Mr Potter said (I'd decided to refer to him as that in my head instead because it felt so weird to call him 'Harry').

"What did you call it? A wall?" Hermione asked, thinking hard. I nodded nervously and wondered what exactly they were going to do next. The others had stopped paying attention and were instead doing something which looked a lot more fun.

"Why is there a hole?" Ron "It'll be those stupid ministry Wizards. I knew we should have just got Hermione to do it."

"Ron, I _did_ do it." Hermione said, flushing slightly. "That spell anyway. None of the ministry spells would have been like a...wall." She said using my word. "And if it's worked for seventeen years then I hardly think that..."

"Maybe it's getting old." Ron said bluntly. "So it's not working so well anymore."

"Or I'm getting old. That's what you're trying to say, isn't it?" Hermione snapped and suddenly the atmosphere, which had been remotely pleasant even when I thought they were about to hex me, felt very very awkward.

"How did the spell work?" I asked over their conversation.

"What? Oh. It stopped people from being able to get here unless they were invited, or had been here before." Hermione answered.

"Well I suppose as it was a conditional spell they might have to have been a... physical hole in the wall."

The adults considered this for a second.

"You're an interesting girl Cassie." Harry –Mr Potter – said looking at me very curiously.

"Oh sh...sugar!" I said as I felt my phone go off in my pocket. My dad. He'd be mad – I was supposed to have been back home by now. I pulled it out and pressed the accept call button and pressed it against my ear.

"She's got the newest model!" James exclaimed. "See Mum, why can't I have the latest model huh?" he complained and I tried to block out Ginny's reply and listen to Dad's voice down the phone.

Listening to people on the phone felt as strange and unnatural as being in the new house because I couldn't sense the emotions behind his voice and it made him sound so fake and unnatural.

"Dad. Dad I'm sorry." I said before he could speak. "I just completely lost track of time. I erm... I ran into James Potter in the park and he invited me back to their house..."

"Invite him to come and eat with us. Cooking in a new kitchen is a nightmare." Ginny said as James eyed me suspiciously.

"Erm... Mrs Potter wants to know if you'd, if we'd, like to come eat with them?"

"Invite your whole family." Ginny added.

"She invited us?" Dad asked down the other end of the phone and I found myself nodding even though he couldn't see me. "Are they sure? It's awfully kind of them but..."

Ginny was nodding at me enthusiastically.

"Yeah, they're having a barbecue. It's..."

"Right. Give me ten minutes." Dad said and I supposed he was glad of some company other than mine. I'd expected him to refuse. "He says he's coming." I said, blushing slightly because I wasn't used to being invited into people's houses.

"You lied." James said, but instead of seeming annoyed he seemed even more interested than ever. "You said..."

"My Dad's paranoid about security and I think the only reason we moved here is because yours is so good. If he found out that I'd broken through it he probably wouldn't be too impressed..." I admitted.

"So your family's crazy." James asked with a raised eyebrow. He nodded towards an empty seat opposite him and I took it as my queue to sit down.

"I wouldn't say crazy..."

"Ron." Ginny said sighing, "I told you to stay away from the barbeque!" She complained and I turned to watch them, bemused by adults acting so... childish. "Didn't I tell you this would happen?"

"But you're a woman!" Ron protested. "Men do barbeques."

"Which was why I wanted Harry to do it, not you." Ginny said which made me smile a little more. "I don't see how anyone could eat this." Ginny said, poking the blackened sausage.

"Can't we just magic up some food?" Hugo Weasley asked.

"No." Rose answered. "You can't just _magic_ up food. You have to -"

"She is exactly like you Hermione." Harry was saying when I glanced back. "It scares me a little bit."

"They're just people you know." James said and I realised he was watching the way I'd been watching his family. "There's nothing _special_ about them."

"No," I protested. "I'm just not used to so many people being around." I explained and James didn't seem to believe me all that much. Well I wasn't about to elaborate considering he spent half his life calling me 'Crazy-Cassie' and watching me do all of the work in potions (we'd been partners since first year). Still I felt bad, and I really didn't want him to think I was one of those people who were completely awed by his parents. I'm sure that must be annoying. "You're all very... loud."

"I'm sure with a house the size of yours it must be really hard to make it loud." James said sarcastically. As if it was my fault that my Dad owned the biggest company in the wizarding world and was therefore completely rich.

"There's only me and my dad." I said in retort because the way he was judging me annoyed me. James looked startled for a second and the moment became extremely awkward. I pulled out my phone from my pocket (just for something to do) and saw that it had saved all of the Potter's/Weasley's numbers onto my phone and was displaying the new added contacts on my home screen. James obviously saw this too and glanced at my screen in surprise.

"How do you have my number? Seriously. That's creepy Cassie." I blushed.

"Oh, it's a trial feature." I explained hastily so he wouldn't think I'd been stalking him or something stupid. "It picks up the signal from any other WCT phone in the area and saves their numbers automatically..." I trailed off when I saw James's expression of amazement. He pulled the phone out of my hand and turned it over in his hands.

"This phone isn't even for sale yet!" James exclaimed in awe. "How did you get it?"

"Oh." I said, blushing. "My Dad... he gets me trial phones."

"He works for WCT?" He asked and I nodded.

"Something like that." I answered blushing again.

"Was that the doorbell?" Ginny asked. "Someone get that will they?"

I glanced around and saw that Ron and Hugo were in the middle of a game of chess. Rose had a nose in a book and Albus was attempting to annoy her as much as possible by poking her. Hermione was hovering around Ginny and looking at me intently.

"I'll get it." Harry said, standing up. "And I won't mention anything about you falling into our back garden." He said, smiling at me.

James was still looking at my phone very carefully and it made me feel slightly uncomfortable. It wasn't all _that_ amazing.

I heard my Dad's voice mingling with Harry's at the doorway.

"That'll be your family then Cassie?" Ginny asked from where she was stood at the barbeque and making something that looked a lot more appetising than the pieces of charcoaled meat that were now in the bin.

"Yeah." I said and wondered what she was going to think when it was only Dad that turned up at the doorway. I looked away from her nervously.

"Hello." My Dad's voice said as he was led out into the backyard.

"Oh my God!" James said standing up and dropping my phone. I grabbed it quickly before my dad saw it on the floor. "He's your Dad?" James exclaimed excitedly and I nodded. He repeated the 'oh my god!' again as everyone else stared blankly at him. "That's Robert Banks! The manager of WCT!" James exclaimed excitedly and I saw a flicker of recognition appeared on everyone's faces.

I wondered how many of them were thinking why does she have her mother's surname, when her mother blatantly isn't here? Believe me, I was.

The WCT or wizarding Communication Technology was founded by my half blood father who thought that the wizarding world should really try using some muggle technology. He adapted and changed most Muggle devices to make them suitable for wizards.

He'd started with phones but added in features such as them being rechargeable by wands (which became a standard feature for all WCT devices) and all sorts of other handy things that made them a lot better than Muggle stuff. Then it caught on in a big way and now every self respecting wizard has a mobile phone, laptop, music player (what did I say about him being unimaginative?) and a digital camera. It was crazy and led to him being the second richest wizard in Britain and the third most desirable male (some model being in first and Harry Potter being in second).

Still, I never quite appreciated his fame because on the rare occasion we went out together he was always in disguise to avoid it. For some reason my existence was publicized as little as possible.

"No wonder you're loaded." Albus commented and Dad looked a little uncomfortable. It was a little backwards. Here we were in the house of the saviour of the Wizarding world and they were obsessing over my Dad. Well, they're kids were in any case.

"So" Ginny said over the awkwardness. "Who wants a burger?"

My dad was slightly drunk. It was quite embarrassing actually. I suppose that given the last event he went to socially was my eleventh birthday party (after which I stopped bothering to have them) he had a lot of steam to let off. Still, I could barely even count these people as my friends really (given that James had sat next to me for five years in potions and we'd never talked much more than me making some comment about him not doing any work, and he calling me crazy), so for them to see my Dad drunk was... strange.

"I don't know really." Dad said cheerfully to James's question. That was the other strange thing. James had talked to me for approximately ten minutes before getting bored and questioning my Dad about the company as if it was the most fascinating thing in the whole world. "It was just one of those things that came into my head like... pop!" He said doing some strange hand gesture and swaying off his seat slightly.

"He's drunk." Rose pointed out, giggling. I didn't find it quite as funny but I smiled and nodded anyway. I tried to ignore the fact that I was blushing.

I knew it was irrational but I was quite annoyed at James. Given he had jibed me for being in awe of his parents he was being horrible hypocritical. Plus James had been the only one here I even sort of really knew, and I thought he understood how completely out of place I felt here which was why he was taking pity on me and actually blessing me with his conversation.

"Cassie." Harry Potter asked, making me jump slightly. "Can I have a word?" He asked and I nodded and stood up. The adults were all stood in a little huddle conspicuously but none of the others seemed to notice or care. They were all slightly fascinated by my drunken father (which I found more than a little embarrassing). "When you said you could sense magic, what exactly did you mean?" He asked me looking at me curiously.

"I... Well I just do." I said lamely. He clearly wanted me to elaborate. "I can just feel it. I can just...sense it." I said and he nodded.

"Cassie. We think you have a talent." He said seriously. "We've had the best people checking our protection and making sure we're safe – from the daily prophet mostly – and not one of them found any way to get in. You didn't even use a wand."

"But... All I can do is sense magic. It's not like... it's not _useful_."

"I think it is." He countered. "And you could probably do even more if you practiced it and experimented a little more. I've only ever met one man who could ever _sense_ magic."

"Who?" I breathed. There was something awe inspiring about the fact that Harry Potter, _the_ Harry Potter, thought that I had a 'talent' which could be useful.

"Albus Dumbledore. Look, I know you probably think that doing extra work in the holidays sounds like a bit of a drag but we really want to see what you can do we this, and aren't you curious?" He asked, smiling. He knew my weakness.

"I don't think my Dad would like it." I said, glancing towards him where he looked even drunker than before, where James was still questioning it. "My mum was, well... I _think_ she was some kind of seer and she... well." I stopped not really knowing the rest of the story.

"But would you like to?" He asked and I nodded slowly. Curiosity's a bitch sometimes.

"Well, James is going to invite you over tomorrow evening at around seven." Harry said and I nodded. "And the day after?"

"I'm not sure if I can do it every day. I normally sort out all the furniture and the rooms."

"Normally?"

"We move a lot." I said. "And Dad has to work, and I like it. This house is a lot bigger than our last though so I'll need to buy lots of furniture..."

"Well that's simple. You can get James and Albus to help you." Harry said smiling as if this news was something very satisfactory.

"What?" James asked walking over to where we were standing (as my Dad's questions weren't very understandable answers anymore).

"You're going to help Cassie do up the new house." Harry told him. "It'll stop you from being so 'bored'"

"That sounds like an excceeelent idea." My dad said walking over and swaying slightly. "I worry about Cassandra sometimes. She's crazy. Bit like her mother."

"He's not always like this." I said quickly. "In fact I've never seen him drunk before."

"It's just the two of you?" Harry asked me and I nodded. "That must be lonely."

"Hmm."

"Can I help with the house?" Rose asked, stepping into the conversation.

"Why would you want to?" James asked moodily. "It's going to be dull."

"We get to see if it's as big inside?" Rose suggested. "Anyway, there's _loads_ of rooms and we can help Cassie decide what to do with each one."

I tried not to feel too used that they only reason they wanted to help was to see if my house really was as big on the inside as it appeared on the outside (it looked bigger if truth be told). Still it would be good to have some help, and some company. It was lonely work.

"It's getting dark." I said considering it was probably best if I got my Dad home as quickly as possible and before he caused any more problems. Plus there was a small part of me that wondered how much I could find out about my mother now that he was drunk. "And we haven't finished unpacking yet, we should go."

"They'll be over at eleven to help you." Harry said and James complained loudly.

I looked at the annoyed expression on his face and decided that it was going to be a long summer.


	3. Chapter 3

It was one of those days when I really didn't want to get up out of bed. Given I had found it so hard to get to sleep last night I had definitely lost hours of sleep despite my lie in. I buried myself further into my pillows and pulled my duvet around me. Why had I woken up again?

I was so warm and comfy... there had to be a reason why I had woken up when clearly I could have slept for a new hours...

Ding dong.

The noise seemed far away and remarkably distant and it took a minute or two to register the fact that the noise was a door bell. Ding dong. Ding dong.

Obviously whoever it was who was at the door was inpatient. Oh.

James Potter

Bugger.

I pulled myself up as quickly as I could, tumbling out of bed and feeling disorientated in my new room. I glanced around to find the door (feeling really stupid) before heading off down the corridor and sprinting down the stairs as quickly as I could in my half dead state (which wasn't particularly fast). The front door was in a stupid place if you asked me, off the main corridor and to down another smaller one. I fumbled with the key in the lock and pushed open the door to reveal... James Potter. Exactly as expected, apart from the fact that he was alone.

"Did you get lost?" James asked stepping through the threshold without being invited. "The others slept in, but Dad dragged me out of bed and made me come."

"I slept in too." I said although that much was pretty obvious. I was in my pyjamas and I was sure that my hair was going to be everywhere due to my tossing and turning in the night. I sighed. If I was going to pick out a situation when I'd run into James Potter (which I probably wouldn't) I wouldn't have picked one where I'd just rolled out of bed.

"You should know I'm only here because Dad made me." James said with his arms crossed in classic moody teenage style. I'd never realised James was so moody before. I nodded and felt myself blushing slightly. I knew full well that he wouldn't be here if he had the choice, but was it necessary to tell me that?

"You should know_I'm_ only here because _my_ dad's making me." I returned quietly but obviously he could still hear me given how quiet the house was. I felt a little bit proud to be actually answering back to one of his comments but at the same time it made my stomach flutter nervously and it made me want to have something to ground myself with.

"That doesn't make any sense." James retorted moodily, leaning on one of the walls with no regard to how dirty he could be making them. Not that I cared either, but I felt he should pay a little respect considering this was _my_ house.

"Okay." I said unable to think of anything to come back at him with. Instead I walked down the small corridor and letting James follow me. He didn't seem interested in the house's high walls and vast spaces of white. Instead he stared at the floor grumpily.

"What do you mean?" He asked after he couldn't handle the silence any longer (have I mentioned how quiet the house is? Triple glazing or something which means that the whole place is completely and utterly silent).

"I mean that if I had any say in that matter I wouldn't be living here. I wouldn't need help with making this place habitable and I definitely wouldn't need help off you. So don't think that I'm enjoying this anymore than you are, because believe me I'm not."

James seemed slightly taken aback about the number of words I'd said in one sentence and nodded dumbly for a second as we carried on walking (I was taking him to the kitchen).

"Where would you be? If you had the option?"

"In our old house with Leanne. As it stands, she's in Florida and I'm living here."

"Why did you move? Did your parents get divorced?" James asked not seeming to care if this was a sensitive topic for me in the slightest. I suppose a disregard of my feelings from James was hardly something unexpected. I'd been putting up with him for five years.

"About ten years ago, yes." I answered. I took a moment to think about how long ago ten years ago was – absolutely ages – and wondered why exactly they had got divorced... As far as I knew they were fine until one day she just moved out and I never saw her again. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I made a floor plan of the house." I said pulling the sheet that I'd stuck to one of the cupboards off and handing it to James. There were three sheets in total – one for each floor. "You can show yourself around whilst I have a shower and get dressed." I told him and before he could protest I was marching up the stairs and towards the bathroom with the locket in. I doubted very much that James was going to be any help at all.

***********

I stepped out of my room twenty minutes later feeling much much better. I no longer felt so grimy and half dead and even I had to admit that there were certain advantages in having expensive power showers rather than plumbing that dated back to the Stone Age.

Plus I was now wearing real clothes rather than my pyjamas and felt much better for it. All in all I was a much better mood and ready to face James Potter.

I liked doing up the houses – honest – it was pretty fun to have free reign to do whatever I liked. No expenses spared. I'd work out a specific purpose of each room then go out and buy a ton of furniture. James could help me move the stuff around – he was strong (he played Quidditch) and I wasn't exactly the person with the biggest muscles in the world.

Actually, where _was_ James?  
"James?" I called loudly, realising he could be anyway on the three floors and it could take hours to find him in this place. How many rooms had I counted? Twenty five? There had been six bathrooms once I'd gone through and counted all the ensuites. Most of the rooms could have been bedrooms although I suspected we'd only keep around four – anymore more than that would be depressing.

"James?" I called out hopefully.

Then he opened the door of the biggest bedroom on the second floor (and the one my dad had claimed) and stood in the corridor. "That's my room." I said pointing the room opposite my dad's. I expected him to nod and move on to the next room (which was empty apart from a magically conjured chair which reeked of magic and was usually kept in my bedroom). Instead he pushed open the white door of my bedroom and walked right in.

The only people I'd ever really had in one of my bedrooms were Leanne and her twin brother, (swoon) Luke. Leanne had made some dry comment about me being a forty year old in disguise but we'd just laughed that off – we were used to insulting each other. Luke hadn't really given a toss either way and hadn't said anything at all. At the time I'd been a little self conscious but it was nothing to what I felt now.

I was well aware that my room didn't look teenage girlish in the slightest and if I was asked to say who it belonged to I would have probable said an eighty year old spinster who was overly attached to her great grandmothers furniture and couldn't see properly... Every piece of furniture was old, tattered and had some elaborate mismatching pattern on it (as most wizarding furniture did) it would have been grand when in its former glory but as it stood it was all faded and a little battered (not helped by moving it from house to house ever year). I loved my room. I loved the furniture and the deep magical feel of it but...

It did make me look very strange.

I watched as James's eyes took in an old embroidered rug and my oak bed warily and wondered what was going through his head. He was probably just saying Crazy-Cassie over and over again. Surprisingly that thought didn't make me feel any better.

He wondered through the room, stepping over my suitcase (I hadn't quite finished unpacking) and walking towards an old rocking chair which I'd brought before I started Hogwarts.

"Careful. It's a little broken." I said warily as he sat down. Nothing cracked which made me breathe a sigh of relief. He leaned backwards in the seat and looked out over my room for the second time.

I glanced over it again and realised something so astronomically bad that I could have died of embarrassment right there. One of my bras – a very plain non-padded white bra – was lying on the floor fairly close to my feet. I think I'd have preferred for him to have seen my one slightly exciting bra, complete with a sparse amount of lace... at least that way he wouldn't be sitting here thinking about how boring I was.

"All I need is a pipe." James said reclining back in the rocking char. "Is this all your mum's furniture then?" He asked and for the first time I thought he'd actually made an astute observation.

"It's her style of furniture. She took all hers." I said and James nodded as if he was thinking about something of great importance. It made me feel a little frustrated that I didn't know what he was thinking – when it came to Leanne I could pretty much guess as we spent so much time together. Dad was as predictable as anything but James... not so much.

"You are crazy." He said after a few minutes of silence. I sighed in annoyance and grabbed my plans from his hands. "What's the problem Cassie?" He asked. Maybe I'd done it a little violently.

"Has it crossed your mind that I didn't expect to have to put up with being called crazy in the summer too?" I asked.

"I was just saying." James shrugged carelessly. "Because you are."

"Why," I asked tiredly knowing that he wouldn't stop until I asked him. "Why am I crazy?"

"I'm glad you asked that." James said standing up importantly. "Because I spent ages trying to find your room and which room did you chose? This one." He said gesturing around. "The one upstairs has one of those baths with water jets, a balcony and a walk in wardrobe. If you want to keep the antiques that's fine, but you should at least take that room."

"What's wrong with this one?"

"It's small, there's no bathroom and the view is rubbish. You should have the whole _floor_to yourself!" James said pointing at the top floor plan. It was the smallest floor complete with balcony and the idea did sound nice, but... ridiculous.

"No thanks. This one's good enough for me." I said glancing at my watch. It was like... half twelve already. "We should go; I'll cook us some dinner."

"Haven't you got a house elf?" James asked and I found myself blushing as I shook my head. "I would have thought with a house this size..."

"We have a cleaner." I told him and walked to the door to try and subtlety hint at him to get out of my room.

"Ooo!" James said standing up slowly. "I'm sorry; I didn't know you were too rich for house elves." I ignored his remark. "Oh and Cassie?" James began. "Nice bra." I blushed furiously. "I forgot how fun it was to embarrass you."

"I forgot how fun it was too." I said under my breath as James finally took the hint and swaggered out of the door.

******************

"So, what you cooking?" James asked from where he was sat on the other side of the hatch. I rolled my eyes in frustration and resisted the urge to do something stupid.

"Stir fry." I answered through gritted teeth as I chopped up carrot into thin slices – the thinner the better just like the cook book said. My cook books hadn't been unpacked yet but I knew the basics off by heart now and barely used them.

"Why?" James asked and I wondered if he knew he sounded like a needy five year old.

"Because we don't really have that much food in at the minute." I told him in annoyance. "So there's not much choice."

I heard his footsteps on the kitchen floor and he walked into the main kitchen area where I was cooking.

"I'm bored." James complained and I kept my back turned away from him and rolled my eyes.

"Put some music on." I said pointing to the wall. As this house was ultra modern and expensive it had a built in docking station for the muggle 'iPod' of course this was compatible with my wizarding music player (W.M.P.).

"You won't have any music I like."

"Download some then!" I exclaimed. I sighed. "Watch the pan, I'll be two seconds." I told him before walking across to the next door sitting room (the one in use) and grabbing my laptop, W.M.P and my phone for good measure. I placed them down on the table in the centre of the kitchen. "Do whatever ever you like. Well, don't watch porn or anything." I clarified. "Just be quite and let me cook."

"I can download whatever I like?" James asked excitedly. I nodded and turned back to my stir fry which was looking a little... over cooked. I turned the heat down and grabbed a pack of straight-to-Wok noodles before emptying them in too. "You have the Singing Banshees' new album already?" He asked and I nodded. "Wow!" He muttered and went over to plug my W.M.P. into the wall. He turned it up and the heavy beat of the Singing Banshee's filled the kitchen. It was a welcome break from the silence.

"Just to kick it down... kick it down..." I sang along and James was staring me as if I'd just become a human (in his eyes I probably just had).

"You build me up, you build me, you build me UP!" James sang at the top of his voice (which was awful).

"Just to kick it down." I finished not half as loudly.

"I love that song." James gushed excitedly and I raised an eyebrow, I could have guessed that.

"Okay dinner's up." I said pulling out some antique-style plates and serving up the stir fry. "And that reminds me, I need to order more food. Can you pass me the laptop?" I asked and James pushed it over to my side of the table.

"Not as good as Hogwarts." James said as he started my stir fry. I ignored him and instead started working out meals for the rest of the week and what exactly we could eat...

"Get some rice." James suggested so I added to big packets to my basket. "And some biscuits." James added coming to stand behind me and watching me over my shoulder. I wanted to tell him how much it annoyed me when people did that, but I knew he'd only do it more.

"That's enough." I counted and proceeded to the virtual checkout. I'd added in the new shipping address last night but it still took me a few seconds to scroll down the list to find the address we were currently living at.

"Bloody hell, how many places have you lived in?" He asked and I decided it wasn't worthy of a reply.

"It's late and we haven't done anything." I said glancing at my watch. "We need to decide what we're going to do with each room. As you've ruined my floor plan I'll print off another." I said looking at the creased up copy James had been holding.

"Where's the printer?" James asked as I opened up the document and clicked print.

"Integrated." I said in satisfaction as I watched his amazement as the sheets flew out the back of my laptop.

At least I could impress him with the advanced technology I had.

*************

"Was James helpful?" Harry asked as he led me into his study thing where I was going to practice using my ability.

"Yes." I lied and he seemed to find this funny and laughed to himself.

"I'm glad there are still some teenagers who understand manners." He said. "Take a seat."

"Okay." I said taking a seat. The house was so full of magic that I did actually feel relatively comfortable but at the same time I was a little nervous about practicing my whole 'ability' thing.

"Do you want a drink?" He asked and I shook my head. "Okay." Harry said brushing his fingers through his hair. He was slightly nervous too. He probably had no idea what we were going to do in this little session thing and was probably regretting inviting me here. I shifted in my seat awkwardly. "Well, could you tell me a little more about your... power?" Harry suggested and I decided to talk as much as possible to eradicate the awkward nervousness.

"I've had it for as long as I remember but I never really thought that it was useful for anything. Magic is the easiest thing to sense, then emotions, then like... memories..." He looked a little confused. "I guess it's almost an instinct and I just _know_."

"Okay, tell me about the magic you can sense in here." He said.

"Well your house is so full of magic it's hard to get anything specific." I said blinking twice. "In this room the strongest magical power is, well, you." I said trying not to blush too much. "Then..." I closed my eyes and placed my hands on the desk to concentrate. "There's something in the draw." I said and Harry looked slightly surprised. He opened up the draw and emptied it onto the desk.

There was an assortment of junk: a muggle stapler, some pieces of parchment, a broken locket, an old mug and some nail varnish. I wasn't about to ask what any of this stuff was doing (although even Harry Potter looked a little confused about the nail varnish).

I closed my eyes again to concentrated and reached out my hand above it. I could feel traces of magic on some of the objects but nothing particularly special until I held my hand over one particular object.

A shiver of excitement and fear flooded through my veins and I felt my heart beating in my chest at twice the speed. It had been strong magic and it had been _dark_magic. I opened my eyes and picked up the locket before running my fingers over it.

"This." I said as I ran my fingers over the whole in it. It looked as if it had been stabbed...

"Are you sure?" He asked worriedly.

"Yeah, dark magic." I said again. "It's gone now but... it's left a tiny trace of what it was before. It used to be... bad." Was all I could say. I turned it over in my hands and felt my heart beating quickly in my chest. Was it bad that I was more pulled to this locket, dark magic, than I was to any of the other magical objects? "It's okay now though." I said dropping it before I did something stupid.

Harry looked slightly amazed and took the locket of the table and ran his own fingers over it. I wondered if he could feel it too.

"That's incredible." Harry said slowly. He walked over to the door and started yelling "Ginny!" I bit my lip and sat at the table awkwardly. Now he was excited and a little bit amazed and I felt like I hadn't really done anything...

"Ginny!" Harry exclaimed when she finally came into view. Harry held the locket in her face and began whispering something to Ginny excitedly. I blushed awkwardly.

"Honestly." Ginny said rolling her eyes. "You're embarrassing the poor girl – I thought you would have known better. Hello Cassie, dear." Ginny said. "I suppose he hasn't explained the significance of finding the locket?" She asked and I shook my head. She gave him a look. "It used to belong to Voldermort." I gaped at her in shock.

"She can sense people to." Harry said. "I bet she could even tell us where everyone in the house is." He said and I blushed again. This was really making me uncomfortable. "Try it." Harry implored.

I closed my eyes and tired to ignore the magic of the walls and all the little bits and pieces they had and instead search for big balls of magic. I turned my lack of vision into a picture and turned the balls of magic into balls of light in my vision. I could feel Harry to one side of me and Ginny behind me surprisingly, to me at least, their magic seemed to be the same size. I extended my vision and looked up to the ceiling. It would make sense if the others were upstairs. I pushed it outwards again and saw several more balls of like... four more.

"James is up there." I said pointing in the direction of where his ball was glowing. I could tell it was his because I had been in his presence all day. The other three were harder. Lily and Albus were here... but who else? I tried to think about it clearly and I vaguely remembered how close Albus was with Rose and decided that it had to be her. "Lily is there." I said pointing at the room directly above us. "Rose and Albus are there, but I don't know which is which." I said opening my eyes again. I dropped my arm feeling foolish and found myself blushing again (when am I not blushing?).

"That is impressive." Ginny admitted. "Would certainly make hide and seek easier." She said, smiling at me.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked. "Explain exactly."

So I did.


	4. Chapter 4

"This is so boring." James complained staring at my latest set of plans with a classic moody expression on his face. You would have thought after five days of trying to perfect the plans he would have gotten used to the boredom and stopped complaining. Unfortunately for me he still arrived at my house every morning assuring me he didn't want to be there and making the house even more miserable.

"Deal with it." I muttered under my breath as I flicked over the sheet and began counting the number of bedrooms. I felt a lot more comfortable with him now and I was able to say a comment in return without having to rehearse it before hand or blushing profusely.

"What's wrong with these ones?" James asked. He was leaning against the sofa with his legs crossed and his eyes staring up at the ceiling. He was being very, very helpful.

"Too many bedrooms." I said and James rolled his eyes and let out a stream of profanities. I was tempted to reprimand him but decided against it – it was hardly worth the effort and he wouldn't listen to me anyway. In fact he'd probably start yelling them just to piss me off.

There were a few seconds of silence and I wondered just how long it would take James to start talking again. I think, having grown up in a blatantly loud household, he had an aversion to silence which I found quite funny. He could only stand a few seconds of the absolute quite that surrounded us when neither of were talking before he'd open his fat gob and start jabbering on about something else.

"Why does it matter if there are too many sodding bedrooms?!" James exclaimed angrily still staring at the ceiling and being very, very helpful. How annoying did he have to be? Honestly?

At school he never seemed this moody although I suppose he was being forced to help me, Crazy Cassie, to redo up her mansion instead of having fun in the sun chatting up girls with big chests or whatever else he'd otherwise be doing.

"Because there are two of us living here and we're never going to have... four friends staying over. We'll probably only have like... one person around at once."

"Why don't you get some freaking friends then? Get a boyfriend? I don't know." James said in frustration. He folded his arms over his chest and began sighing deeply to try and get my attention or just to be plain annoying.

I rolled my eyes and pulled out another blank copy of the plan. I started labelling things that were obvious and had remained constant in the past five or six plans: Dad's office, Dad's bedroom, Kitchen, Living room ect...

I stopped and started chewing on the edge of my quill absent mindedly as I tried to work out what would work best as a dining room. In all honestly we didn't really need a dining room given there were two of us and we'd probably eat in the kitchen. Still, we needed to fill some rooms up. It would be good to have the dining room near the kitchen to make sure that it wasn't too far to carry the food...

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" James said snatching the parchment out of my hand and creasing it. He pulled the quill of my hand and began scribbling the names of rooms onto the plan.

I rolled my eyes dramatically (because he couldn't see) and leant back against the old sofa. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sound of quill on parchment.

"Does your Dad have any hobbies?" He asked suddenly and I looked up at him. James, despite having me a go at me for ogling his parents, spontaneously asked questions about my father on a regular basis and started acting very... strange whenever he walked in (which he did occasionally to see how things were going) so I was fairly used to his weird behaviour. I wondered if this time he'd bothered to speak because of the silence or if the question had any significance to him in the slightest.

He probably wanted me to tell him that he was an all star chaser so that he could have something in common with him. Pfft. He'd never touched a broom stick in his life.

"He used to paint." I said after a few seconds. It was easier to answer his questions, due to his persistence and general arrogance, than to ignore him but it felt strange thinking about it. For the past five years since WTC had hit the big time he hadn't done anything but work and move our furniture from one side of the country to the other."He's too busy now."

"Anything else?" He asked and I looked over at what he was doing curiously. I saw on the first floor of the plan he'd written 'painting room' and for a second I was slightly astounded at his brilliant idea. Considering James was actually quite bright if you looked at his grades it shouldn't have surprised me quite so much but... He'd been so vastly unhelpful in this whole process that I hadn't expected him to even try and been productive.

"Stop gaping and answer the question, Cassie." He snapped impatiently (he was definitely in a particularly bad mood today. Maybe he'd lost his broom or something).

"He used to... read a lot. All the time." I said trying to think back. My memories got a little fuzzy if I thought back too far but I did remember him having a great big room full of books when we lived with mum. He used to read to me...

'Library' and 'Reading room' were added to the first floor. I smiled. This was actually good.

"What about you? What do you do?" He asked. He looked up at me with his brown eyes full of a level of curiosity I was slightly surprised by, then it was gone. I blushed in embarrassment – for a second I'd thought he was actually interest. Not that I cared.

"I don't... do anything." I said looking away from him in embarrassment.

"Come on Cassie, you have to have some hobby." James said impatiently. He tapped the quill on the parchment which made me want to reach out and hold his arm still. That's probably what my quill-chewing had done to him to make him grab the plan out my hands. Oh well.

"I do up houses."

"Very slowly," James added. I didn't say anything in return and for a few seconds James was completely silent before he started talking again. "You're allowed to have more than one."

"I used to play piano." I said quietly. James looked up at me again before labelling a few more rooms on the top floor.

There was silence for another few seconds as I regretting telling James that important detail about my life. I found my face heating up and knew that I must be blushing very obviously but James was no longer looking and was instead bent over the plan. Maybe that was to save me further embarrassment? Or just because he hadn't noticed so hadn't thought to laugh at me yet?

"What about... a sauna?" James suggested and I laughed at the absurdity of the idea. There was a trace of a smile on his features now and I was taken aback by it. He'd been in my house for five (long) days straight and had yet to show any signs of enjoying himself whatsoever (other than laughing at my displeasure on various occasions).

"A Sauna?" I questioned.

"Why not?" He asked. "You've got all the money in the world."

"Fine, let's have a sauna." I laughed. "Put it in that small room next to the bathroom."

"Now we're talking." James said grinning (!) at me as he began labelling rooms with even more obscure titles.

"What the hell is a reflection room?" I asked bending over the plan and looking at the top floor. "It sounds like something you'd find in a church?"

"Stick some old sofas in there, add some girly lights or whatever and have it as a space to reflect."

"You're just stuck for rooms." I accused him and he shrugged and wrote something else down.

"Now Cassie, tell me honestly. Can you swim?" James asked with a mock serious expression on his face. "Or are you too crazy for that?"

"Yes." I answered flatly leaning back against the sofa and allowing him to do whatever he liked to me already-ruined plan. It wasn't like we could use it anyway – a sauna of all things! And he called me _crazy_.

"How about themed bedrooms?" James suggested. "You could have the normal themes like black and white and them some really weird ones like... the jungle or something."

"You could make it into a huge greenhouse with a bed suspended in the treetops." I suggested completely sarcastically. He wrote something down anyway even though I was sure he couldn't be dense enough to believe I was being _serious_. This was a house, not an overgrown fairground.

There was a whooshing sound from the fireplace and Dad stepped out dressed in his smart work clothes. James looked up startled. I watched as his face lit up in excitement as he saw my Dad.

"How's it going?" Dad asked sounding cheerful for once. I was used to him being absolutely exhausted whenever he came home but then again, it was unusual for him to be home this early in the day. We hadn't even had lunch yet.

"Good, Sir." James said standing up and offering out his hand. "We've just been drafting out some more plans." He said holding the stupid ones he'd just drawn up tightly in his other hand.

"I'll get you a coffee." I told Dad rolling my eyes behind their backs and walking off down the corridor.

I hardly got to see Dad as it was – not that we really had that much to talk about anyway – but it was frustrating to no end that James hogged all his attention. Surely he had his whole big family to give him attention and feed up his oversized ego?

I sighed.

I've never hated James or any of the others that insisted on calling me Crazy Cassie and poking fun at me whenever the opportunity raised its ugly head, but that didn't stop me thinking he was and egotistical annoying prat with whom I definitely did not want to spend most of my summer. I wanted him to clear of and leave me to do it by myself. I was more than capable and would probably be half done by now if it wasn't for his ever constant presence complaining, whining and generally sucking what little happiness there was in the room out of it.

Yeah, I understood perfectly that he wouldn't be here if given the choice but he was and he should really get over himself and actually try being helpful.

My slippers slapped nosily against the tiled kitchen floor as I walked over to the built in coffee machine. I preferred making coffee the manual way – boiling a kettle, adding coffee ect... and it was hardly the most strenuous of tasks but of course there had to be a quicker way of doing it... a machine! All I had to do was press and button and BAM there's you coffee.

It's not so great when you're _trying_to kill time though.

I gave myself a few seconds of closing my eyes and trying not to become more annoyed at either my Dad or James before picking up the steaming mug and walking back into the living room.

Of course James was showing his stupid plans to Dad who was finding them immensely funny and was positively beaming at the idea of having his own painting room. Stupid _James Potter_who thought it was okay to walk into my house and suck up to my father when I barely saw him myself. Stupid _Dad_who had to be famous and rich instead of just normal and fatherly.

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I didn't usually get angry because I normally allowed things to wash over me without much thought but for some reason I just couldn't let this whole thing go. Maybe it was because this was _James Potter_ who had yet to do one nice thing for me and constantly tried to get a reaction out of me by eternally pissing me off, and_Dad,_ my only relative in the whole world who were in my living room talking and chatting away like best buddies.

"Then I was thinking we could have themed bedrooms to make the more interesting, and so it wouldn't feel like an empty guest room. So... have a jungle room and have real plants and a bed suspended in the air amongst the tree tops. Or one where it looks like you're sleeping under the stars – like the Great Hall!"

"Your coffee." I said flatly to Dad who didn't pick up on any of the angry-Cassie vibes I was sending him. He looked at me for a second, took the coffee out of my hands, before returning to the conversation with James.

"Then I thought that you could have two painting rooms. One where you can paint on the actual _walls_and this room here which looks out onto the back garden where you could set up an easel."

"And what's this?" Dad asked sounding amused as he pointed to something.

"A swimming pool." James answered as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

Dad laughed. I gritted my teeth and sat down on the sofa in annoyance. Since when did Dad laugh anyway?

"Then the whole of the top floor is just going to be for Cassie." James said and I felt pleasantly surprised that he'd remembered I also lived in this house. "There's the balcony, her bedroom, her bathroom, a study, a library for all her books, a piano room, a reflection room..." The list went on and I shut my eyes and blocked them out.

Instead I concentrated on sensing the magic in the room like Harry had told me to practice. I sensed Dad, a pretty small ball of magic considering, and James but I pushed past them and tried to identify what each piece of furniture I could feel was. I'd nearly worked out what everything was to about the front door when I snapped out of it completely as I heard my Dad's response to James stupid plans.

"They're great!" He declared and my eyes snapped open as I looked over at him. "Really fantastic! A little... odd but I think that's a good thing for a house this size. You can start going to buy furniture for it tomorrow."

What? _What?_

"_What?_" I asked without really meaning to. The tone of my voice scared me slightly. It had lost its usual level quality and sounded more annoyed than I thought I felt. They both turned to look at me in surprise. Of course neither of them were remotely scared or challenged by my voice because I was just stupid _Crazy Cassie_with her _crazy_ powers and _crazy_sensible plans which actually made sense.

I blushed furiously at the looks I was receiving but I could stop talking now or I _would_actually look crazy. "You're telling me that we're having a bedroom in a greenhouse?"

"But that was your idea?!" James said with the perfect mixture of surprise, hurt, and confusion in his voice for it to sound genuine. I could see quite clearly that he was smirking behind my Dad's back. Smarmy bastard. "It'll be fun."

"Come on Cassie, lighten up a bit!" Dad exclaimed. "Act more like a teenager! Loads of kids would kill to be in your position."

"You're so lucky Cassie." James said with the same stupid expression on his face.

"The plans might still need a little bit tweaking, but you can do that as you go along. No need to waste your whole summer on this, is there?"

I looked at my Dad's genuine expression and found myself beginning to strongly dislike James Potter who was grinning like a cat the just broke into the cream factory. Why was he so pleased?

Oh yeah, because he likes to get a reaction out of me and he just got his biggest one yet. I almost yelled. I blushed too (when do I not blush?).

"Fine." I said knowing I was going to regret agreeing to this when I had to live in a house which had a greenhouse –_indoors_.

"Right!" Dad said cheerfully. "That's sorted then. Now, for the rest of the day do you think you could try something out for me? It's brand new."

I sat down on the sofa wearily – of course he had another agenda for coming here which was sure to be nothing to do with coming home to see his precious daughter. James nodded excitedly (looking like a complete tool) and watched in awe as Dad pulled a television out of his (magically enlarged) brief case.

"I think this could be the start of a new industry!" Dad declared hastily conjuring up a table and placing the television on top of. "It has slots for DVD's, videos and has the capacity to receive all the muggle channels because, let's face it; there aren't many wizarding television channels right now."

"So it's a muggle TV." I supplied glancing at his latest invention feeling altogether unimpressed.

"No! As always it runs by wand power, although it can come with a plug if you have muggle neighbours who'd get suspicious, and you can also play these; WD's!"

"Wizarding Discs?" I asked and Dad nodded excitedly.

"These ones just have Quidditch matches on but you'll get the idea." He put the disk in the slot told the TV to start and sat back on one of the sofas with a mug in his hand. The picture started off in the television and looked like a normal muggle television program (except that everyone was flying around on broomsticks). "I got this idea of the muggles too. Surround sound!" He instructed and suddenly it felt as if you were sitting _in_the stadium. "Surround picture!" He yelled and suddenly the picture came completely out of the television. Now there were fourteen ghostly players flying around our living room and behind me were all the people in the stadium cheering and yelling.

"Wow." James breathed glancing around behind him. "Hey, I was sitting over there!" He exclaimed pointing to some seat high up in the stadium. "I can see myself! That's so weird!" I craned my neck and tried to see if I could see James myself but I couldn't and eventually turned back around and followed the Quidditch player's movements. "The snitch!" James said and I saw it was hovering in front of his nose. He stupidly tried to reach out and grab it but his fingers just went through it. Then one of the players dressed in green grabbed it out of the air. James shrank backwards but the Quidditch player flew threw him as the stadium erupted into cheers.

"Off!" Dad yelled and the whole picture disappeared and we were left in the centre of our plain living room. "What do you think?" He asked excited.

"It's amazing!" James exclaimed and for once I had to agree he had a point. "Wow!"

"It's good." I conceded.

"But?" Dad prompted me.

"Is the picture a standard size or does it change to fit with the room? "

"I didn't think of that."

"Well, otherwise half the picture might be playing upstairs or in the next room. Also I think having it completely surrounding you might be a little... distracting. Plus, if this was a movie it would be a right pain in the arse to have the action completely surrounding you. They'd have to film every single different angle."

"So are you thinking just have a 180 degree shot?"

"I'd say 270."

"Great, thanks. I really think this could be big! I've had company's asking to make programs all ready. Ones about the first and second Wizarding wars, some history of Hogwarts, the Life of Albus Dumbledore, some romance film..."

"How would the whole channel thing work?" I asked before Dad continued listing things that could be made movies of.

"I haven't worked that out yet."

"How much data can you fit on the WD? Maybe if instead of having... channels, you brought like a sports disk, a history disk, a comedy disk ect... and then they come with programs already on. Then you could also update them with all the new programs whenever they're made."

"That's brilliant!" Dad said putting his coffee cup down and standing up again.

"Also, Dad?" I said as he began packing his stuff away (leaving us with various WD's). "Make them compatible with muggle machines." He nodded before grabbing some floo powder from the side.

"Sorry, I've got to stay late at the office to night, Cass. Then I have to go meet some investors. I might not get back until the early hours of the morning."

"Okay." I said as he stepped into the fire and disappeared into the flames.

"On!" James declared at the Quidditch match started up again. "Cannons game." James instructed and a list of available Cannon games dropped down. "Against the Tornadoes." Then another game started and James lent back on the sofa and began watching the game.

I grabbed James plans from where he'd discarded them on the floor and began making a list of all the furniture we'd need to buy. There was a lot. Then he'd need to hire someone to install a swimming pool, a sauna, a... a lake? I gritted my teeth in annoyance but carried on writing out the list. If this is what Dad wanted then this is what he was going to get.

I was writing the list so furiously that I'd written four or five lines before I realised that my ink had run out. I sighed and stood up to go get some more from Dad's temporary office when James stopped me.

"Couldn't get me a drink could you?" He called over the deafening noise of the Quidditch match. I sighed and decided that for once I was not going to let him walk over me.

"Muggle!" I yelled and the surround sound and picture disappeared back into TV screen. James turned to glare at me. "What drink would you like?" I asked sweetly.

"That coke stuff I had yesterday." James said still glaring at me. I nodded and turned to the door. "Oh and Cassie? Sorry about the plans, I know it's your house and everything but I really couldn't care less what it ended up like. I just want to make sure that I don't have to waste anymore of my life stuck in your _crazy_company." I felt my face flushing and James smirked in satisfaction. "I'll have ice with that coke too please."

"Okay." I said walking out of the living room shaking slightly.

God _damn_ him.


	5. Chapter 5

James was late. I glanced at my watch and sat on the sofa of the main room concentrating on not being irritated by the fact that the day we actually had to go somewhere, he was late.

Today was the first day of the big shop, something which would probably take several days, and which I was actually quite looking forward to. Getting out of this dead house would be a god send; I was fed up of being stuck in an almost entirely muggle village where the only magic was in my beloved old decrepit furniture which wasn't nearly enough to fill the enormity of this house. I needed to sense some_ real _magic to get myself feeling right again.

I sighed loudly to make my point, even though I knew there was no one here to appreciate it.

Of course James Potter had to ruin it by arriving... fifteen minutes later than we'd arranged.

I picked up the corner of one of the magazines and saw a large picture of my dad on the front. I flicked over a few pages until I reached the article and began to read – there was nothing else to do after all and I often found their take on what my father was like relatively amusing.

_Robert Banks is widely regarded as the founder of the Wizarding revolution and the significant increase in respect for muggles and their technology. It is his company, the WCT, that has taken the Wizarding world by storm and created a humungous trend which allows wizard kind to both understand muggle technology and fit in much better in the muggle world. Terry Boot – head of the muggle liaisons office – has stated that "such a unanimous change of public opinion has not been apparent since the end of the WW2" and "We should be grateful to Robert Banks for preventing such prejudices from returning and significantly reducing the 'pureblood mania' which has returned various times throughout the history of magic". When we asked Robert Banks his opinion on these matters he just laughed and said that "I think it's safe to say the end of pureblood mania and change of public opinion can only be put down to Harry Potter and those who fought in the war."_

_This statement caused even further for respect for the famous Robert Banks and the rising of the debate as to who has done more for muggle-wizard relations – Harry Potter or Robert Banks. Article continued on page 16... _

I flicked over to page 16, glancing at the clock as I did so, before returning to reading the stupid article. This one featured another large picture of my dad and a caption reading 'the third most attractive man in Britain?' I laughed at that and began reading the part entitled 'an exclusive interview with Robert Banks.'

_CC: I'm here with Robert Banks for an exclusive interview! Now, do you have any new and exciting upcoming products you would like to talk about?_

_RB: I'm not at liberty to say quite what my future plans are just yet, but I'd keep your eyes open for the next big thing which should be released in a couple of months. I'm very excited about it myself, and I've had a lot of people talking about the new potentials of this product. _

_CC: Any clues you could give away?_

_RB: I'd say, __**watch**__ out for it. _

_CC: Now, I'm sure you're amazed by the popularity of WTC. Did you ever expect your ideas to take off?_

_RB: (laughs) Not really. I don't think I could have predicted this in a million years!_

_CC: When do you think it first hit you that you'd made the big time?_

_RB: About the time when I realised I'd made my first million. I was in shock. I was stood there staring at the letter from Gringotts for twenty minutes or so before I could move! I couldn't think of what I could do with a million galleons!_

_CC: Now you're the richest Wizard in the UK! How does that feel? Would you say it's changed your life?_

_RB: (Smiles nervously) I supposed I've got a bigger house? I don't really have much need to spend most of it so it just sits there. I don't have anyone to spend it on! _

_CC: Ah? How's the love life? You've recently been named as the third most attractive man in Britain, only just beaten by Harry Potter himself, and the rumours are that you're still single! How could this happen?_

_RB: I don't really have much time to have a love life. WTC takes up a lot of my time._

_CC: Well, I must say that you're quite the catch! Rich, clever, funny, modest, handsome... I'm surprised you haven't been snapped up! _

_RB: (laughs). I'm not so sure about funny, really. My best joke starts with 'A vampire walked into a bar' and ends with 'ouch!' _

_CC: (laughs) I've heard it through the grapevine that you used to be married! You're well known for keeping your private life a secret but surely you haven't managed to keep that hidden for all these years!_

_RB: It was a long time ago, before I'd even started WTC. It didn't work out. That's all I'm saying._

_CC: Of course, you're known for your mysterious ways, thank you for talking to us Robert, and I hope to see you again soon! _

If you've ever read an interview where one of your parents tries to flirt with an infamous 'CC' printed in witch weekly then you'd probably understand how sickened I currently felt. Add in the fact that my existence was smoothed over and ignored then you get how joyous that article made me feel. As in, _not very_.

Who the hell even was CC?

"Having fun Cassie?" James Potter asked and I jumped suddenly which resulted in me throwing my hot chocolate all over my lap and taking in a deep breath to stop myself from swearing loudly. _Ow_. I kept my breath sucked in so I didn't start effing and blinding in James's face.

For a few seconds all I saw was red.

Who the hell walks into someone's house without ringing the doorbell? Who the hell walks straight into someone else's house and into their living room? What. The. Hell.

I found myself stood up glaring at him before I could take control over myself again. I suppose receiving a great big burn and a heart attack can make you lose self control for a few seconds.

James was _loving _it.

"What's up?" He asked looking down at the great big stain on my jeans with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing," I replied sending him a sweet look. I picked up the article from where I'd thrown it to the ground and noted that it was soaking wet. The hot chocolate had also gone all over the wooden floor boards but that didn't make much difference really. If it stained, magic could fix it, but the magazine was definitely beyond repair.

"CC." James Potter said pulling the dripping magazine out of my hands and examining it. "What does that stand for? Crazy Cassie?" He suggested and I rolled my eyes at him and pulled it back.

"I need to get changed." I said placing the magazine back on the counter where my dad had no doubt been fawning over it and picturing the beautiful CC and his imminent wedding to her or something of that sickening and ridiculous calibre.

"Really Cassie, shouldn't you be ready by now? We're going to be late!" James managed to say through his smirking lips. I ignored him and walked calmly up the stairs.

_I will not get angry. I will not get angry._

I dashed into my temporary bedroom and pulled on a different pair of jeans. My legs were red from the hot chocolate burn but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I was quite good with pain when it didn't take me by surprise. Stupid James Potter.

_I will not get angry. I will not get –_

"Nice pants Cassie." James commented barging in my room and throwing himself down on my bed. Two seconds earlier he would have got an eyeful of my ass. As it stood all his saw was yesterday's knickers which I'd been planning on adding to the washing pile before James got here, that I'd obviously forgotten about.

I'd preferred it if he's just seen my arse.

Rather than my dirty underwear.

I blushed furiously, picked them up off the floor, and shoved them into the washing up basket. They just had to be the pair that had faces on which gradually went from frowning, to smiling with the words 'turn that frown upside down' flashing on them. I'd had them for a long time. I didn't see the point of getting rid of them given that they still fit...

"I'm ready. We can go." I said glancing at myself very briefly in the mirror.

"I quite fancy a lie down actually," James said stretching out his arms and closing his eyes. I rolled mine and tapped my foot impatiently which he ignored.

"Is there any reason why you're being particularly unhelpful today?" I asked glancing around my bedroom before James Potter saw any more offending pieces of underwear or items of clothing.

"Actually, Cassie, now you ask yes. You see my whole family are going to the beach today."

"And you're not."

"No, Cassie, I'm not." He said in the most fantastically patronising voice that I was almost impressed by. Not quite though. "I'm going shopping with you."

"Why didn't you go with your family?" I asked in a bored voice because I knew it was exactly what he wanted me to ask. He'd probably rehearsed this whole conversation previously (whilst looking at himself in the mirror no doubt) and now I was playing along so he could feel even more bigheaded and important. Yay.

"Do you honestly think that I would be here if I had any choice in the matter? No, Cassie, I would not." What a shocker. Really. "However I have been grounded for most of summer, because of something that wasn't even my fault, and after my endless complaining of how bored I was, you fell into my back garden! Of course my dad knew that I really didn't like you, so he thought, why not punish my innocent son even further by forcing him to help the annoying girl and not go on fantastic sounding day trips to the beach?!" I sighed and tried to stop myself from raising an eyebrow at him to show how utterly boring I found his tale of woe.

"So yes Cassie, I'm being particularly unhelpful because I, unlike you, could have been having fun today. I, unlike you, have friends and family who could come to the beach with me. I, unlike you, could be out of this stupid muggle town and somewhere else for a change. So, my crazy little Cassie, you are going to hate this day almost as much as I'm going to!"

"Wonderful!" I said without a hint of sarcasm (although I was feeling it quite a bit actually). James's eyes narrowed and he gave me a dark look before pulling himself of my bed and stalking out of my bedroom.

Success! I had managed to get a reaction out of James Sirius Potter for the first time. Ever.

Today was going to be fun.

~BREAK~

"Shut up Cassie. You're crazy, you don't have an opinion." James said walking down the furniture isle of some great big wizarding superstore. If I'd had any say in the matter we'd be in a small antique shop picking out pieces of furniture individually but apparently that's not good enough for James Potter. In the interest of getting things done quickly he'd selected a big store where we could get lots of furniture with no character all at once.

Actually James, I do have an opinion. In my opinion you're a selfish idiot and I _don't like you_.

I stayed silent.

"Well?!" James prompted gesturing wildly to try and get a reaction. I decided to use my one weapon against him and kept my mouth shut. I didn't look at him and instead began examining the list. He fumed, unable to stand the silence. "Cassie!" James complained following me down the table aisle muttering profanities and generally making a nuisance of himself.

He could do what he liked. I was miraculously indifferent.

After losing my temper yesterday I wasn't going to let the same thing happen again. I'd made a fool of myself, and I didn't need my so called reputation to be ruined anymore. James might also figure out what had made me mad and then he'd increase his efforts tenfold. It was better to let him think that I was just PMSing or whatever than let him work out that I'd been mad because he was talking to my dad... _pathetic_.

"What about this for the black and white bedroom?" James suggested pointing to a giant double bed. There was a wooden black headboard and crisp white covers which looked unbelievably comfy, it was practically begging you to lie down on it and take a nap but that would be rude and... James threw himself on top of it and his dirty shoes made marks on the white covers.

"Get off!" I hissed glancing around to make sure no one had seen what had happened.

Unfortunately there was an assistant walking towards us with an irritated expression etched on to her face. "Now!" I ordered but of course he ignored me. He closed his eyes and stretched out a little more.

"I think we should get it."

"Excuse me," The nasal voice of the assistant said as she walked over and saw the great big black mark on the white bedcovers. "But what are you doing?" He first was crunched up into an expression of annoyance and her voice held a high quantity of irritation.

James opened his eyes in panic and scrambled off the bed.

"Sorry," I told her trying to smile politely. "I just wanted to make sure it was actually comfortable before I purchased it."

"It was very comfortable." James said catching on quickly (although he did seem to be putting on a posh accent which confused me). "Top notch!"

"Excellent!" I said writing down the reference number for the bed.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" The woman asked glancing at me in apparent confusion. Apparently they weren't used to teenagers buying beds. Strange, that.

"Yes actually," I said pulling out my list of furniture and the plan of the house. "I need lots of furniture."

"Right..." The assistant said glancing at my list. "And do you have a method of paying for this furniture or...?" She asked the annoyance (and nasalness) creeping back into her voice. I pulled out a credit card and presented her with it.

"You can check it if you like." I suggested sweetly. She read the name 'Robert Banks' before nodding and handing it back to me.

"That's not necessary. If you would like to follow me I can show you the furniture that matches this bed..."

~BREAK~

"Now, I really think we should head off. I know this really nice antique shop that I want to go to and..." I stopped suddenly when I realised that I was talking to myself and James had completely disappeared of the face of the earth. I whirled around (looking stupid) in an attempt to spot where he'd gone and saw that, for some reason, he'd ducked behind a chest of drawers and seemed to be hiding. "James? What the hell are you doing?"

"Cassie!" James hissed in complaint before standing up quickly and beginning to talk in an overly-casual overly-loud way which left me utterly baffled. "I'm sorry Cassie! Your sanity isn't in here either!" He declared and I heard someone snigger. I turned around again (and realising how utterly stupid I must look revolving around on the spot, blushed) and suddenly it all meant sense again.

There, walking in our direction was Ryan Bradley – James's best mate.

James was acting as though he hadn't yet seen Ryan (although he blatantly had after the whole hiding thing) and continued insulting me in a loud carrying voice. "I don't think you'll be able to afford this anyway, Cassie! Not unless you plan on selling the last of your sanity for money... but even then I'm not sure if it would get this much."

"How much is it?" I asked, playing along even though I was slightly irritated.

"Twelve galleons." He replied, stepping back out into the main aisle and feigning surprise when he saw Ryan. "Oh, hey mate!" He declared. It suddenly struck me as strange that they probably hadn't seen each other since the end of the summer given how close they normally were at school...

"Interesting company." Ryan commented nodding in my direction. I blushed at the tone of his voice and hurriedly stuffed the list of furniture we still needed to buy in my pocket. He couldn't see that.

"It's my punishment." James said. "Turns out Cassie is a charity case, and you know what my parents are like, do-gooders."

"Right."

"So given Cassie's mums in a loony-bin I'm being forced to help her and her dad do up their hovel. It's torture mate."

"Right." Ryan repeated again walking towards us and looking amused. Ryan circled me for a few seconds and stopped right in front of my face. "So, how are you enjoying James's company?" Ryan asked me. For a few seconds I paused, wondering how to react. Then I saw James, just behind Ryan's head mouthing the words 'play along.'

"Oh yes," I said smiling at him slightly vacantly. "It's been really fun."

"See, barking." James said. "She doesn't understand sarcasm." He whispered.

"Really, now?" Ryan asked raising one of his eyebrows at me. If I'd been like most brainless girls in the world, I might have described his eyebrows as attractive but I was not. James and Ryan were partners in crime and although James had been more responsible for my mirthless teasing, Ryan was slightly meaner in my opinion.

"I'm sorry?" I asked, smiling at him as if his presence completely thrilled me. "Are you having a good summer?"

Ryan looked over my head and sent a look to James that clearly said 'is she for real?' which I supposed was exactly what James had wanted because he shrugged and sent me a brief nod as instructions to continue.

"So, are you having a good summer?" I prompted him. I smiled at him as if he was someone I knew very well, rather than the someone I knew by reputation only.

"It's best just to go along with it." James said in a stage whisper to Ryan, whilst clapping me in the shoulder.

"It's been all right." Ryan said, bemused.

"That's brilliant!" I said letting my gaze drift off to one side of his head giving the impression that I was entirely spaced out and not quite with it.

I wouldn't be able to tell you why I was helping James out by acting crazy enough to live up to my nickname, but I couldn't think of any other way I could have acted in the situation... it wasn't one I'd ever thought I would be in.

You see... Once upon in first year I fell over (out of nervousness) and unfortunately fell into Ryan Bradley's illegal broomstick (which had been 'disguised' under several layers of brown paper). I apparently 'damaged it' and then had Ryan threatening to get his brother to 'beat the money out of me' to pay for it... I'd then started yelling about how my father was a filthy rich business man who could kick his brother's ass any day... and from then on I was known as crazy.

Considering that was the only incident they should have gotten bored fast and moved on to find someone slightly more pathetic to tease – I've always maintained that there are people who are much more bullyable than me – but by then everyone had gotten used to it, and had discovered my blushing. After then there was no stopping it. There was even a competition to see how many times someone could make me blush in an hour, or how deeply (they had their own scale for this, which I found both sad and slightly worrying) and that led to trying to induce a more exciting reaction by stealing my clothes, spilling things on my homework, 'accidently' tripping me up ect... when they discovered that my only reaction was blushing most people got bored (although this did take up until the beginning of third year).

Forth year led to a renewed fervour of my torment when someone realised that any word remotely related to sex also made me blush (which is something I still can't fully control) before that got old too. Eventually the only people who bothered to torment me, or pay any attention to me at all, were James Potter and his best friend – Ryan Bradley.

Honestly, the teasing had only bothered me for the first week or so of first year before I decided not to let it bother me any longer. Even at eleven years old I had been relatively self assured and happy in the knowledge that I was a curious shy girl who blushed a lot, could sense magic and very rarely got angry (mainly because when I was angry I tended to do stupid things... like yell about how my father was filthy rich...) so I was able to pass off their teasing as nonsense and just blushed my way though those first years.

The problem was that puberty made me much more vulnerable, with the added fact that my father was acting especially strange and the constant moving from house to house it was understandable that I had a more negative reaction to it. It began to get to me for a short period of time in third year where I became even more incredibly shy and even hated the pair of my worst tormentors to the point where I'd lie in my bed crying angry tears about how much I wanted to stand up to them...then I gave up with it. Hating something isn't in my nature and I wasn't acting like myself anymore so I thought, to hell with it, and continued to sit there and blush my way through it unscathed. They didn't know anything of my own internal battles, which was definitely a good thing, and probably assumed that it either bothered me all along, or didn't bother me at all.

Despite the fact that I now harboured no ill feelings towards them it still made me feel very out of place being solely in their company. Having James there was bad enough... but when face with both of them at once I was at a complete loss of what to do...

So I just did what James told me to – play along.

I was vaguely aware of the fact that in helping James out just this little bit, I was going to make things a lot worse for myself when Hogwarts resumed. I dwelled on it for a second before casting it aside because, really, what else could I have done?


	6. Chapter 6

"So," James said standing in my doorway looking incredibly awkward. James Potter was never a person that I would have thought of as awkward before this moment – he was overconfident and slightly arrogant by nature and he carried himself in a laid-back manner which I had always considered unbreakable (not that I'd ever attempted to break it). So it was highly unusual to see him without his normal blasé attitude and it completely threw me for a second.

I stared at him for a few seconds on which he shuffled his feet slightly and glanced everywhere but in my general direction.

"Erm... do you want to come in?" I asked fully expecting his standard reply of 'not really' or 'I don't have a choice, actually Cassie' or, as in the case of yesterday, him just to walk in without ringing the doorbell. The day before that the second I'd opened the door he'd barged past me – nearly knocking me over – to throw himself down on the comfiest sofa and order an ice cold can of coke.

"Sure," James said and walked in – even taking the time to wipe his shoes on the mat before walking out into the hallway. Wow.

Suddenly I had this vision of James being polite and courteous to me forever more... holding doors open for me at Hogwarts and offering to chop up the particularly nasty things up so that I didn't have to touch them in potions – where we would undoubtedly be partners again. The image was so comical that I shook my head at my own madness and internally scalded myself for being stupid.

"Your insanity isn't infectious, is it?" James asked in a half-hearted tone which sent my eyebrows shooting up my forehead to join my hairline. For once, I'd actually offered him material to use and he'd barely even registered it... sure he'd commented, but usually when I actually did something he'd highlight the point to the extent that even I was beginning to believe that I was actually completely insane.

"Erm...no." I said unsurely. "Do you... do you want a drink?" I asked him standing awkwardly in the corridor. I found myself wishing that he was back to his normal self because the whole situation was even more uncomfortable than it had ever been before.

"Please," James said.

"Right." I said. I took in this weird foreign James for another second before walking towards the kitchen with the sudden urge to barricade myself in my room and hide. What was wrong with him? Why wasn't he being a jerk? I honestly could not understand.

I supposed that I had sort of helped him out yesterday in the shop. Ryan had engaged in a fifteen-minute-long conversation which basically revolved around how crazy I was. I'd done my part – on James's request – and had pretended to be entirely odd. Apparently that sort of thing is Ryan's drug because he was _lapping_ it up and kept prodding me for more things to take the piss out of before I'd eventually got fed up and said "Oh, I'm sure James would love to go for coffee with you, or something, while I try and find something affordable. This shop's awfully expensive – don't you think?" which had mollified Ryan given that we were in the row entitled 'bargain city!' and served two purposes: getting rid of Ryan and getting rid of James.

"Well then – isn't that lovely!" I'd declared before disappearing off to pay for the furniture and visiting my favourite antique shop.

I'd expected him to go back to his usually arsey ways without even making a comment about the great favour I was doing on his behalf, or maybe making an elusive comment which implied I was utterly mad – which I was, given I had _actually_ helped him. Really I should have lowered the standard of my language and told James to stop being a tosser even though it would have humiliated him beyond words.

I grabbed the coke that was sat by the side of the drinks-fridge that hadn't quite fit, and an ice cold one for James. The day before last he'd repeatedly sent me back to fetch him another coke because his wasn't cold enough...

I shook my head and headed back into the corridor where he was milling around looking at the carpet. I cleared my throat. He seemed too engrossed in thoughts to hear it.

"Well, shall we go into the sitting room?" I asked. James, who looked up suddenly and appeared shocked that I was there, nodded. We walked into the room in single file and sat down in an odd silence which hung in the air heavily. I'd never been in such an awkward silence, and I was sure James had never been silent for so long.

"Your coke," I said, about to pass him the can from the fridge when I suddenly changed my mind. He took the semi-cool can without complaint and had drunk almost half the can by the time anyone spoke again.

"What are we doing today?" He finally asked – just before I was about to explode and say something stupid.

"Wallpapering and painting and stuff – I ordered some the other week. I haven't really decided about what's going where or whatever, but it doesn't really matter. I've brought carpets, and wallpapers, and curtains, and paint and..." I stopped when I realised how much I was rambling and blushed profusely. I damned my burning red cheeks and stared at the floor until I felt the cheeks leave my gaze.

"Why," James began looking at me curiously. "Do you blush so much?"

"I don't know, I just _do_." I retorted sharply and James raised an eyebrow at me.

"It's just a question." He said holding a hand up as if to tell me not to react quite so much.

"And that was just my answer."

"I only -"

"Leave it, Potter."

"What's up with you, Jones? PMSing?"

"I don't like awkwardness." I said my voice returning to its normal calm now we were no longer sat in silence.

"And why is this awkward, Cassie?" James asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees so he could look at me mockingly.

"Because," I said calmly, "You were being weird."

"I think," James said tilting his head seriously. "It was because you gave me the wrong coke."

Thank Merlin for the return of normality.

~BREAK~

"Cassie?" James asked from halfway up a ladder as he lined up the wallpaper to the top corner of the wall.

"Mhmm?" I asked tilting my head to make sure that the wallpaper was straight. My decorating style had been pushed out slightly by James's love of the wallpapers with texture which James claimed gave the room 'depth.' This particular wall paper was a 'fresh' light green that was to be teemed with cream walls and green features – whatever features were – and I had to admit that James had outdone himself. It wasn't as awful as I expected and it definitely worked as a 'working room'.

"Do you..?" James began. The wallpaper slipped from his hand and he made a sudden lunge to catch it before it slipped.

"That's not straight."

"Yes it is,"

"You're definitely crazy; this is straighter than Amy Jessops hair,"

"It's _wonkier_ than Albus Dumbledore."

"You're crazier than Gilderoy Lockhart."

"You're crazier than the Lovegoods."

"You're crazier than a happy dementour."

"Crazier than a pleasant blast ended screwt."

"Crazier than the fact that your Dad is Robert Banks." James said, turning to look at me. "Although, now that I know I suppose I can see the resemblance – you have his eyes."

I blushed furiously and glanced at the floor. Did he have to keep saying things that made me blush? Although there wasn't much that didn't make me blush these days... was my blushing problem getting worse? Maybe it was the extreme presence of James that was causing all this extra blushing. It wasn't particularly helpful.

"Why _do you_ blush so much?"

"It's not intentional." I sighed as we began sticking the wallpaper to the wall.

"So it's just one of those things? Like how Lily paraphrases everything you say and relays it back to you?"

"Erm, Sure." I answered with a characteristic blush.

"We've finished the feature wall," James said with a nod at the freshly wallpapered room. I didn't even know what a feature wall was, not that I was going to mention that to James Potter. I nodded in a non-committal fashion and stood back to admire our handy work. It did look pretty good, I was pleasantly surprised.

"Hmm." I agreed, pulling another roll of wallpaper from the bag.

"You know you're... you're super power thing?"

"Not really...?" I answered feeling thoroughly confusion.

"The whole 'I'm so special I can sense magic' thing?"

"Oh," I said. "I suppose." I picked the roller off the floor and began smothering the final wall in wallpaper paste.

"So does it... does it actually exist?"

"You think I lied?" I asked feeling completely unsurprised and underwhelmed. James has probably just added it onto the list of things which proved I was crazy, which was great. He better not start to talk about it at school that would be _awful_.

"Yeah," James said confidently. "I do. I think you lied so you could meet the legends that are my parents." I didn't answer. "Well, aren't you going to stand up for yourself?" He prompted.

"Why should I?" I asked.

"So it's not true."

"Your parents believe it," I said with a shrug.

"Yes well, my parents believe I gave Ryan two black eyes for no reason, just because they believed Lily's claim of me having no provocation."

He was expecting me to question him about what he'd just said, I could tell, but that didn't mean I wanted to too. I was so fed up of doing exactly what James wanted me to in these stupid conversations. I wanted to tell him I didn't particularly care about his life, but no – I was Crazy Cassie. "Why did you give Ryan two black eyes?"

"You would be crazy enough not to know about it." James sighed in a way which was almost bordering on sad. "The point is," James began. "Lily lied because I hexed her pathetic excuse of a boyfriend, Al refused to have anything to do with it and I've been grounded till we go to Italy – it's not fair."

Life's not fair you self-absorbed prat.

"And yesterday," He sighed. "I mean, I do appreciate what you did Cassie, but I wished you hadn't. I had to give Ryan another black eye, and if my parents find out I'm grounded till the end of the summer. Argh!" James complained.

Isn't the life of James Potter so hard... grounded for mysteriously punching his best mate, grassed up by his sister, and grounded before he goes jetting off to Italy for a fabulous holiday, after which he's probably free to do anything he likes. How _utterly_ tragic.

"But, the point is, can you really sense magic?"

"Yes."

"Prove it." James implored. I rolled my eyes. "Dad said you could sense people. I'll blindfold you, and you have to point where I am." James said, suddenly tying a makeshift blindfold in the form of a dirty rag (nice and hygienic) over my eyes. "Count to ten, then come and find me." James ordered.

I rolled my eyes. There was no way I was participating in the rubbish. I had nothing to prove to James Potter. I was not going to...

"Ten," I said out loud. "Ready or not," I muttered. I folded my arms, sighed, and stepped into the middle of the room. No doubt James was sprinting up to the top floor right this second, and I'd have to navigate my way up the stairs somehow. I might be able to sense magic, emotion and memories... but these walls were muggle and there was nothing to stop me from walking straight into them.

I closed my eyes behind the blindfold and concentrated hard on feeling my way around the room. The wallpaper has self-cleaning and dirt-repelling charms on, which meant I was able to sense those easily enough. They gave off a pulsating hum of energy that allowed me to walk out of the room without falling over my feet and dying. I'd half expected James to tie my shoelaces together or something (not that I was wearing shoes with shoelaces, but that sort of thing).

The walls – which had been completely soulless before – had absorbed some emotion since it had been inhabited. I had to concentrate very hard, but I was just about able to steer my way through the corridor.

If I knew James, which I didn't really, he'd have headed immediately for the stairs. I walked across the corridor feeling increasingly more comfortable as we approached two of the rooms we'd actually been inhabiting – the living room and the kitchen. I stopped at the entrance to the kitchen – there was that familiar magical pull. James was in the kitchen.

I turned, stepped towards the kitchen and felt my way about the room. The kitchen was mostly muggle because it had been fitted before we got here... but James was sitting there at the table along with something else which had a strong magical pull...

My laptop.

He better not be videoing me.

"You're sitting at the table on my laptop." I told him. Today there was something different about James Potter... he was just as magical as ever, but there was a strange mix of emotions that hadn't been there yesterday – or maybe I just hadn't being paying attention.

James Potter was sad, worried, and a little bit scared.

I ripped the blindfold off my face and found myself face to face with a smirking James Potter. He had the laptop pointing at me, the inbuilt webcam rolling and the image of myself shown back to me – covered in paint, my hair sticking out everywhere and the blindfold clutched menacingly in my hand.

The bastard. The prat. The arsehole.

"Stop, delete." I said clearly, and the webcam stopped recording and deleted the clip instantaneously. "Personalised voice recognition." I told him, slamming the lid of my laptop shut and sending him a dark look. James's eyes widened slightly. "You, go paint the painting room. I'll finish the working room off by myself,_thanks_."

I was trembling with anger again. I grabbed myself the last ice cold coke from the drinks fridge before turning my back on him and stalking out the room.

Maybe I should have thanked my lucky stars when it was just awkward.

~BREAK~

"Cassie?" Harry Potter asked. "Where's James?"

"He's... just finishing off." I told him. James hadn't come back? James was still at my house? Well, that was a scary thought. Plus, I'd locked the door. James was locked in my house... why hadn't I sensed his presence? I thought he'd just gone home...

"Okay," Harry said unsurely. "Well, I was wondering..." He began. "This might be a... erm, sensitive topic but I... I really think it's important."

"Okay," I said, nodding.

"Your mother." Harry said tentatively, as if he was expecting me to fly off the handle and tell him not to talk about it. "You said you thought she was a seer...?" Harry began.

"Yeah," I said. "I think so, at least – the only memory I really have of her seems to indicate that way."

"What do you remember?"

"There was... a cauldron and... a crystal ball," I said lamely. "And she was there."

"Okay," Harry nodded. "I'll understand if you don't want to do this, but... I was wondering if I could perhaps look at that memory." I nodded. "I have a..." he gestured to the new addition to the room – a large basin that reeked of magic so strong and powerful that it made me feel strong and confident enough to agree to Harry Potter's mad idea.

"A Pensieve." I finished for him.

"Do you know how it works?" Harry asked. "You just lift your wand to your head and..."

I nodded.

"Are you sure this is okay Cassie? I don't want to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable?"

"I'm quite curious about it myself, to be honest." I told him and it was true, I was. Immensely so.

* * *

**_Update is for the anon reviewer 'AC' who told me to update. Thanks for the reminder! As this is up on another site up to chapter 19 I do tend to er... forget. SO yes. Thanks for reading :)_**


	7. Chapter 7

_The room glowed with orange light from a single flickering candle which stood on a dark mahogany table. The almost-darkness dulled the crimson and purple drapes which hung around the rooms – each patterned with thin gold lines of swirls and flowers – and added a quality of mystery to the room. There were two arm chairs – one laden with cushions, drapes and embellishments where as the other was straight backed mahogany and cushionless. _

_On one sat a child. On the other sat her mother. _

_"Well," Her mother said with an excited smile. She turned on the mahogany chair and lit a fire under a large black cauldron. The flames matched that of the candle and the expressions of the two came into view. The mother seemed to relish in her surroundings and the chid watched her with wide eyed interest and a degree of scepticism. Her mother busied herself around the cauldron, seeming to act instinctively as she chopped, stewed and threw things into the simmering cauldron. _

_"What are you doing?" The child asked, stretching to see inside the cauldron. _

_"Have a look," The mother urged. She stood, stepping over the mismatch of objects that lay on the floor and looking deep into the cauldron. The liquid was blood red and the child seemed to drink it in with her eyes and her whole body..._

"What was it?" Harry asked.

"I don't remember." I told him honestly, staring as the younger me gripped hold of both sides of the cauldron and leaned towards it. "But it was strong – very magical."

_"Cassie!" Mum exclaimed. "Don't do that!" The child – Cassie – straightened up looking startled. "You'll fall in, love." _

_"What would happen if I did fall in?"_

_"I'm not sure, but I don't think it would be very pretty."_

_"What if I just... touched it?" The child asked. _

_"You'd probably lose your finger." A voice said from the doorway. I chunk of light was cast into the room and a figure stood there - a man. _

_"Robert," The mother complained. "You're ruining the vibe,"_

_"The vibe?" He questioned. "You mean you'd just about conned Cassie into buying into this rubbish... and then I opened the door?"_

_"No," She laughed._

_"Don't mind your Mum, Cas, she actually believes all this fortune telling nonsense." _

_"Well," She said, "I saw that I was going to marry you, didn't I?" _

_"I think it was more persistence than fortune telling,"_

_"Does it not work then?" Cassie asked. "What Mum does?"_

_"Well," The younger Robert Banks began. "That really depends on who you ask," _

_"I'm asking you." Cassie said. _

_"Well I say no," _

_"Well I say yes," _

_"No," Robert said._

_"Yes." _

_"Well then, predict this." He said suddenly moving towards her and kissing her._

_"I already did." She said serenely, stepping aside. "Now, if you'll excuse us, Cassie and I are practicing the art of divination. Aren't we?" _

_Cassie nodded. _

_"Well, I'll leave you too it then." Robert said, "But Cassie, if your Mum scares you, just tell her to be quiet." She nodded again. _

_"All right Cassie." Her mum said. She took a spoonful of potion and placed it above the candle. _

_"Why are you doing that?" Cassie asked _

_"The fumes." Her mum said. "Are you sure you want to do this Cassie?"_

_"Yes," She said defiantly. "I want to know if it's a load of rubbish or not." _

_Her mum laughed. "Okay," She said. "Now, don't mind me. I'm just going to sit here and breath in the flames – maybe something will happen, maybe something wont but if it does, don't get scared, yeah?" _

_"Nothing's going to happen Mum." Cassie told her._

_"We'll see," She said. Then the room seemed to fill with a thick dense smoke. Cassie and her mother seemed not to notice nor react to it. "Cassandra..." The walls of the room seemed to smudge and bend... "Never look into your future." The Mum's voice said, harsher and distorted..._

"What's happening?" Harry asked from where he stood next to me. "Is that the potion?"

"No," I told him. "That's just how my memory of it is – fuzzy. I just can't remember any more than that."

"Are... are you sure?" He asked. "You're not hiding anything?" He asked, nervously glancing around the memory as it seemed to dissolve away; it had almost entirely evaporated when suddenly everything became solid again, but this time in brighter block colours.

_Cassie was screaming. Her eyes were wide with terror; she gripped the arms of the chair, and out of her throat came a terrified scream. _

_The door flew open and her Dad stood there in the doorway. He flicked the light switch and ran over to Cassie's side. "What's wrong? What's wrong?" He was asking urgently. Cassie's mouth slammed shut and she shook. _

_"Honey! I'm so sorry!" Her mum declared, also at her side. "I didn't mean to scare you! Oh, honey!"_

_"Everything's going to be all right Cassie; everything's going to be all right." Her Dad assured her. They clutched on to her tightly and rocked her. She sniffed and a single tear dripped down her face. "There," Her mum said wiping it away. _

_"It was nothing Cassie, nothing."_

_"Nothing," _

_"Nothing at all."_

Then I suddenly found myself back in Harry Potter's study, miles and miles away from my old home and from my mother. I blinked and found, to my surprise, that my eyes had welled up. I bit back the tears and faced Harry uneasily.

"What happened?" He asked. He looked just as uncomfortable as I felt. "Why did you scream?"

"I don't remember," I shrugged.

"Well, what happened afterwards?" He asked.

"All I know is, she left the next day." I told him.

"Well..." He said. "Why don't we leave it there today," Harry said. I could sense his doubt and a strange sympathy which I didn't understand. He was confused, intrigued, and guilty. "We'll carry on as normal tomorrow." He assured me before practically kicking me out the door.

I bit my lip for a second before flattening myself against the wall and trying my very best to hear what was being said. I could sense that he was in the kitchen with Ginny, and that what he was saying was worrying her but...

"What are you doing?" James Potter asked.

I jumped about ten foot in the air and nearly had a heart attack.

"Oh my god!" I hissed. "Don't_ do_ that to people!" I whirled around to face him as he advanced towards the door with a strange expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" He asked again.

"Nothing," I said, wrapping my arms around myself. I was edging on being genuinely upset. The memory had shaken me and I didn't want to have to deal with James Potter right now. I wanted to go back home, crawl into my bed and sleep.

"You were eavesdropping – why?"

"Oh, piss off James!" I hissed. I could feel the tears welling up in my sockets again and was vaguely aware that I wasn't acting how I normally did. Wasn't I normally immune to his annoying tendencies? Did I not deal with him impassively? Why? What was the point in hiding the fact that I thought he was an arrogant git.

"Aren't you supposed to be with my Dad?" He asked taking another step forwards so that he was level with the door. I pushed myself off the wall and took a step backwards.

"We finished early."

"Why?" He asked again, choosing to face me rather than the door that normally would have been a lot more interesting to him.

"You know what? Why don't you keep your nose out of my business?" I asked taking a few steps backwards. I was still facing him and he had a strange unreadable expression on his face, but what did that matter when I could sense his emotions. He was _interested_. _Now_, he was interested – because I was upset. "And don't come back tomorrow!" I yelled before hurrying out of sight and allowing the moisture that had built up in my eyes to fall in three or four drops. I'd wrongly thought that memories of my mother were something that no longer bothered me but...

I guess everyone can mistakes. Like I did, when I thought that my parents were happy. Like dad did, thinking everything was all right before, one day, she just disappeared. Vanished. Gone.

I quickly wiped my face, wrapped my arms around me and hurried back down the path towards home. James had been right, then.

I definitely had been crazy, not to expect her to go.

~BREAK~

I'd crawled into a ball on the sofa and apparently fallen asleep, because now I was blinking open my scrunched up eyes. The light made me groan and I pulled the pillow that had been under my head over my eyes and kept my mouth shut tight.

If I'd slept all night on the sofa then it was likely that Dad hadn't come home at all – not that that was unusual. Or that he'd just woken me up by arriving in the middle of the night. Or that he just hadn't thought to move me from my sleeping position.

"Cassie?" A voice questioned. James _sodding_ Potter. I instantly stopped my stretching out legs, and froze. Even thinking about what I'd said yesterday made my face flame up to a spectacular scarlet colour. He'd almost _definitely_ called the mental hospital now. He was probably just waiting for a reply saying they'd saved me a padded room. "Erm... I got you a coke?" He said poking me in the side.

Why was James Potter in my house? How did he get in? If he'd just walked in then I was not going to be best please – you just don't _do_ that. There was no other way...

"Its common courtesy to wait until someone lets you in." I muttered quietly pulling myself up off the sofa with the realisation that I was still in yesterdays clothes. My head pounded. I ached everywhere. I felt hungover.

I stood up and walked straight out of the door, heading for the brighter pastures of showers/fresh clothes. Sod James Potter. Sod my father. Sod my mother.

~BREAK~

The shower thankfully brought back the return of my piece of mind and instead of screaming and swearing in James Potter's general direction I took up a vow of silence. I pulled on one of my dad's long checked shirts for comfort – the smell of his cologne always made me feel protected– and some shorts and decided that was decent enough for the height of the British summer. I walked down the stairs with enough confidence I could get from my limited reverse and chose to walk straight past the sitting room and headed for the painting room before...

It was already done. I'd assumed that after I'd told James to go work somewhere else, he'd just decided to mess around with Dad's stuff or abuse my laptop or something... but it seemed he'd actually continued, and must have carried on for quite a long time. I followed the corridor, glancing into each of these rooms as my surprise mounted. He'd done _loads_. The whole downstairs was practically done! Done well too – these paint jobs were practically professional, and he'd taken the time to neaten up the edges of the wallpaper. it looked good.

"Cassie?" James asked walking out into the corridor. When he saw that I was looking at his handiwork his entire aura took on a slightly embarrassed, slightly proud and slightly humble tone that impressed me. I'd expected flat out arrogance. "It's good, isn't it?" James asked clapping a hand on my shoulder – inducing a scarlet blush – and flourishing his other hand about abstractly; nodding appreciatively like his room was a gigantic work of art.

Why was he acting so arrogant, if he _wasn'_t arrogant? And he called_ me_ crazy.

"It's lovely." I said dryly, before walking back into the temporary store to check the plan – which was now enlarged and pinned on the wall, to see what needed doing next. "The corridor." I said after a few seconds of consideration. Then I sorted through the roles and roles to find the correct ones...

I hated this house, I decided as I picked up designated roles and examined it. It was a rich beige colour with brown flower pattern that, apparently, actually grew and moved when it was on the walls. James had talked me into keeping the floorboards and just staining them to a darker brown. Then, James had suggested, buy some red seats and what not to line the hallways... as if we needed more furniture. Still, it was a good idea and I was surprised James appeared to have a sense of style...

But honestly, all the magic in the world couldn't make this place nice to reside in. It needed good memories, and it sure as hell seemed like there wouldn't be any good memories here. If you factored in the fact that Dad was never at home, and that James Potter was being a complete prick the more time I spent in it, the more the walls seemed to absorb the bitterness.

And then I dragged out the rolls of wallpaper into the corridor, and treated James with my best and only weapon – the silence he so detested.

~BREAK~

"No, I don't want her there," James voice rang out from the other end of the corridor. He seemed to be at least trying to keep his voice slightly quieter than normal – which meant there was a slight chance he'd picked up some manners in the past sixteen years of his life – but hearing the one thing moving in an entirely empty house is far too easy. "No, Mum, she's not coming – I won't invite her. No, he wouldn't come anyway – he's been working, hasn't been here for like three days," There was a slight pause as the other person; presumably James's mum said something, "No!" He protested. "All the others will think... Mum you don't know what she's is like at school, she's crazy... I don't care what Dad says! She just is, Mum – I don't think you... _Fine_."

I decided the _he_ could break the silence, and instead concentrated on getting this little section of wallpaper just right.

He was silent for a few moments before I felt him approaching from behind me, "Cassie?" He questioned.

"Don't lean on the wallpaper." I instructed him. "You'll crease it,"

"Cassie, I'm _behind_ you, you can't know what I'm doing."

"Well," I said turning around and looking pointedly at where he was leaning on the wall. He raised his eyebrows slightly but did move off the wall, where thankfully it _hadn't_ creased. "You've been invited to dinner."

"Oh really?" I asked in my best bored and uninterested voice.

"By my family." He continued.

"Well that really _is_ very considerate."

"You're declining right?"

"Oh, well, Potter – why would I ever do that?" Potter stared at me incredulously. I was in a vindictive mood, possibly due to the lack of sleep and the bringing up of old memories, but if I had to be miserable it could only be a good thing to make James miserable too.

Well, _sort_ of.

"So you're coming with us?" James asked.

"Of course I am," I replied sweetly, before turning my back on him and wallpapering. His annoyance flared up behind, but I ignored it and decided to carry on wallpapering as if there was no one else in the house.

"Well," James answered stiffly. "You'll have to dress up – it's a proper posh place, you probably don't have anything suitable. Get me a coke will you?"

His revenge attempt was pitiful; it seemed that James Potter had lost his touch.

~BREAK~

The dress was certainly quite posh – the sort of thing I'd wear if I was to accompany Dad to one of his 'social' functions which were really all about the business and nothing about socialising, if I wasn't – in the eyes of the media –totally non-existent. Instead I had in my closet, with the label still attached and... Well, why not wear it?

It was given this whole event would make me feel incredibly self conscious, which was something I hadn't considered when agreeing to this dinner (which I was now fully regretting) yet... it would be nice to get of the house.

Well, I decided – it will do.

Then I made my way down the stairs and left, locking the door behind me. James had left twenty minutes ago so he could get ready too, and I had another ten minutes before I had to be there. I could make the walk in five.

I couldn't decide if I was looking forward to the meal or not and considered it during the walk over. I couldn't really imagine the Potters in a very formal setting if I was honest – and would the extended family be there? Most probably...

Lily answered the door, and her eyes widened slightly as she saw my dress. She was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt, she was probably just going to get changed in a minute – I imagined the Potters existed in a permanent state of lateness and chaos. She awkwardly led me into the kitchen and...

They were all dressed casually.

And it wasn't just the Potters – there was at least one set of Wesley's assembled. Hermione and Ron, then Rose and Hugo – and Fred was here too, although where his parents were I wasn't sure – and they were all staring at me.

Oh _god_, I was actually going to kill James Potter. My face flushed red hot, immediately, and I bit my lip. What could I do? It was so tempting to turn around and run back out the house before anyone could possibly see me.

There were a few seconds of silence, as everyone looked slightly taken aback by my state of formal dress and I found myself too embarrassed to speak, if their actually _was_ anything to say.

Then James himself threw open the door and grinned.

"Told you," He said to Albus who entered a millisecond behind him. "_That_ is a level one blush." My face grew even hotter, if that was physically possible. I wasn't angry though, every little part of me was being used up in this embarrassment and there were none spare for things like anger.

"James did you..." Ginny began, seemingly in a state of disbelief. James was still bathing in his pleasure at inducing such a fantastically scarlet blush. He smirked at me and _winked_.

"Nice dress,"

The anger that rightfully should have been there since the beginning sparked up and began to churn away in my stomach, but I couldn't do anything. The embarrassment still had me frozen.

"James – outside." Ginny said grabbing hold of his arm and pulling him back out into the corridor. "_What _did you tell her?"

"What? Mum? I didn't _do_ anything."

"I swear to Merlin, James Potter, if you don't tell me the truth right now you're going to wish you'd never been born." Harry and Ron visibly winced at this, and the horrible feel of the atmosphere began to assault my senses. It was a horrible angry sense of anticipation, mixed with defiance and glee – although there was too much within the air for me to pinpoint who found the whole thing so gleeful.

"Right," Hermione said in a falsely bright voice. "Do you fancy a drink Cassie?" I couldn't speak even if I tried, and instead I shook my head, feeling my face burn up into ever more impressive shades of red.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?" Ginny's yell rang out from the other side of the door. "GROUNDED? YOU'LL BE LUCKY IF I LET YOU GO BACK TO _SCHOOL_ AT THIS RATE!"

"Does anyone else want a drink?" She asked, her voice rising in volume and pitch slightly. The atmosphere got thicker, and I instead tried to concentrate on the slightly more pleasant atmosphere _inside_ the room.

"Yes please," Lily said.

"I'll have a fire whiskey please," Fred said confidently.

"Me too," Albus said quickly.

"Like hell you will," Harry countered.

"Dad lets me all the time," Fred said.

"Really?" Ron asked. "It's funny, I strictly remember your mum saying that you'd never had a drop of alcohol in your life."

"You let _James_," Albus protested.

"No I don't," Harry countered, glancing to the door where Ginny's voice was still yelling, only slightly drowned out by the overly loud conversation.

"He doesn't let him do anything, he just does it," Ron said with a grin. Harry sent him a dirty look. Hermione repeated the offer of drinks to everyone, just as Ginny went silent on the other end of the door.

Everyone stopped suddenly, and both Lily and Albus leant towards the door. "She's building up to something," Rose told me in a hushed voice. "The bit after the silence is always the best."

And then I had no choice but to focus on the emotions outside the room.

"Let me get this straight," Ginny said in a would-be-calm voice that even I had to admit was terrifying. "You told her that we were going to a posh restaurant, because she was polite enough to agree to come to dinner with us?"

"Oh," Fred said. "I get it now."

"Only three hours after everyone else," Lily hissed. "Merlin, I have bits of parchment that are quicker on the uptake than you are."

"Don't you mean teddy bears?" Fred returned with a grin.

"I do not have teddy bears." Lily said to me.

"You do," Albus added.

"I do not! I'm thirteen! I don't have teddy bears!"

"Oh give it a rest," Harry said.

"You're just trying to listen," Lily countered, hands on her hips. "Tad hypocritical, no?"

"She's got you there," Ron said in an undertone to Harry.

"Shush!" Hugo exclaimed. "She's about to -"

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE HER! I DOUBT SHE THINKS MUCH OF YOU EITHER!" All the eyes in the room turned towards me. "I DID_ NOT_ BRING YOU UP TO BE A -"

"We're going to be_ so_ late," Ron said with a grin. "And I just can't wait to explain to Mum why..."

"Grow up Ronald," Hermione said. "Should we?"

"JAMES POTTER IF YOU DARE TOO -"

"She's your wife, mate." Ron said, pushing Harry towards the door. He grimaced. The kids moved away from the door. He opened it, and the words 'APPOLOGISE RIGHT –' rang out especially loudly before the door shut on the other side.

"This should be good," Ron said leaning towards the door...

"Ginny, can't this wait until _after _the meal, because we're all ready twenty minutes late, and I'm sure James won't do anything else whilst we're there..."

"He's not coming." Ginny snapped back viscously. I could feel the anger radiating from through the wall. It was going to take at least a week before it faded.

"What?" James demanded. "You can't stop me! I need to get out the house Mum!"

"You're not going out."

"It's a violation of human rights!"

"I'm not even sure if you are human!" Ginny snapped back. "He's not going Harry, I'm not having it."

The door was thrown open. "Thanks _a lot _Cassie." James spat in my direction. "Thanks to you I –"

"Actually," I said coolly, suddenly finding my voice for the first time. It was louder and stronger than I'd expected, and I think everyone in the room was slightly taken back. The room fell silent again. "I think this is_your_ fault." And then I stood up, half in a daze, and walked out of the Potter household. I closed the door softly behind me and breathed in the free-from anger atmosphere with relief.

So I _can_ stand up for myself.

Occasionally.

* * *

**_In regards to the mess which is the fact that you guys just got the same chapter twice (genius move, thanks for telling me though because I wouldn't have noticed) it turns out it's actually because I uploaded the wrong chapter 5 rather than the wrong chapter 6. But either way, here's an actual update! I'll just go sit somewhere and feel stupid for a bit ;)_**


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